Rumsfeld Afghan-Pakistan border fighting unabated

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 11 (Reuters) US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan remained a key battleground in efforts to stifle a resurgence of Taliban fighting.

''There is no question but that there is some cross-border activity -- Taliban and Al Qaeda,'' Rumsfeld told reporters today during a visit to Afghanistan.

''The cooperation that we have with some of the neighbors has been helpful but it has not as yet completely reduced the cross-border violence and it is something that needs to continue to be worked on both sides of the border,'' he said.

Rumsfeld, on his 11th trip to the country, was the second senior US official to visit Afghanistan in two weeks to reaffirm US support during the bloodiest phase of Taliban violence since 2001.

Groups of Taliban have infiltrated large parts of the south and east and unleashed a fierce wave of bombings, ambushes and raids.

Hundreds of people, most of them Taliban, have been killed in clashes over the past two months.

That violence, nearly five years after the Taliban was ousted, has taken the government by surprise.

Rumsfeld's visit came as US-led forces and Afghan troops killed about 30 militants in the restive southern Helmand province, a spokeswoman for the US-led force said.

The defense secretary and other American officials regularly blame the drug trade for funding the insurgency in Afghanistan.

But today, a senior US commander in Afghanistan said power vacuums in some areas of the country help the Taliban.

''It's important to remember that the areas the Taliban is operating in are areas that the government of Afghanistan has not heretofore had the strength and the presence,'' said Lt Gen Karl Eikenberry.

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, also blamed the violence, in part, on his country's weak security forces.

''The internal reasons are the weakness of our police force in the districts of the country, especially in the areas of the country bordering Pakistan. We have no strong police force in the villages,'' Karzai said after meeting with Rumsfeld.

NATO MISSION Despite the rising violence, plans for NATO to take over military operations in the south this month remain on track. Rumsfeld called that transition ''historic,'' noting it will be the first time that NATO has led a major operation both outside of the treaty organization's territory and outside of Europe.

''It brings the interest and the commitment of some 26 nations that are determined to see Afghanistan succeed,'' the defense secretary said.

The NATO peacekeeping force has responsibility for the generally peaceful north, west and capital. NATO troops, most from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, are due to take over in the south from the US-led coalition.

NATO's expansion, however, is unlikely to lead to dramatic US troop reductions in Afghanistan. Instead, US forces will continue counter-terrorism operations and training Afghan forces, Rumsfeld said.

The United States had been hoping to trim its Afghan force to about 16,500 but now has about 22,000. The NATO force will soon number more than 19,000.

Britain announced yesterday it was sending an additional 900 troops and helicopters to bolster its force in Helmand.

The Taliban said the British reinforcements would have a torrid time. ''We'll attack the British troops with such ferocity they will flee,'' Taliban commander Mullah Hayat Khan told Reuters by telephone.

REUTERS SY BD2348