KABUL, 27 September 2003 — NATO said yesterday it was looking at options to expand its Afghan peacekeeping force, while Taleban guerrillas said they killed two aid workers in an ambush this week, underscoring the country’s growing security problem.
President Hamid Karzai’s government, the United Nations and aid agencies have called repeatedly for the mandate of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to be extended outside of Kabul into provinces troubled by a resurgent Taleban movement and unruly warlord armies.
NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said in Kabul after talks with senior Afghan officials, the United Nations and ISAF commanders that the alliance was studying the options and a decision would be taken in a matter of weeks.
One option would have NATO taking over reconstruction teams deployed in the provinces by the 12,500-strong, US-led military force pursuing Taleban and Al-Qaeda remnants, Robertson told a news conference. Another would make the teams, currently serving under a different mandate from the 5,500 peacekeepers, “ISAF islands”.
Taleban guerrillas have stepped up attacks in recent months and declared aid workers legitimate targets in their battle against the central government and US-led forces. The period since early August has been the most bloody since the overthrow of the Taleban by US-led forces in 2001, with more than 280 people killed, among them civilians, aid workers, police and militiamen, three US soldiers and many guerrillas.
On Wednesday, Taleban guerrillas attacked a vehicle of the Voluntary Association for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan in Helmand province, killing two of its Afghan workers. Earlier this month, four Afghans working for a Danish aid agency were killed in Ghazni province southwest of Kabul.
