Winning Afghan war essential for West: NATO chief

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Kabul, Feb 22: The West must win the war against Islamic militants in Afghanistan or face attacks in their own countries, NATO Secretary-General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer said today.

''If we like it or not, Afghanistan ... is a frontline in the fight against those people who want to destroy the fabric of our societies,'' he told a joint news conference with President Hamid Karzai after talks in Kabul.

''If we don't succeed in Afghanistan, I am quite sure that the spoilers will come to us to the Netherlands, to Belgium, to the United Kingdom, (as) they came to the United States,'' he said referring to the September 11 attacks by al Qaeda.

Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since U S-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 for harbouring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network after September 11.

Amid warnings by the Taliban of a spring offensive, Western analysts say this year is a crunch period to win the war.

De Hoop Scheffer said NATO should focus on reconstruction, paying more attention to training and equipping the Afghan army.

For its part, the Afghan government needs to build up its institutions, fight against endemic corruption and drugs in the world's leading producer of heroin, he added.

NATO has over 33,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Some of its member countries have shown reluctance to send more troops or lift the restrictions over the deployment of troops to the southern and eastern regions, the main bastion of the militants.

More than 4,000 people, nearly a quarter of them civilians, but also about 170 foreign troops died in violence last year, mostly in the two regions.

The militants operate from safe heavens in Pakistan, the former key supporter of the Taliban until the September 11 attacks.

Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of still backing the militants, which Islamabad denies but concedes of some border infiltration by the insurgents.

REUTERS

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