Not Enough Troops to Fight Taliban London, Nov 1 (Prensa Latina) The International Security Assistance Force is not enough to wipe out the Taliban resistance, according to the head of the former, Gen. David Richards, who was quoted by the Financial Times on Wednesday.
Richards said he was lacking enough troops "to obtain victory in the coming months," which proves the fierceness of the armed Afghan groups against the foreign military presence.
The general said he is waiting for a positive answer from European Union member countries for the sending of more troops to the ISAF contingent in Afghanistan.
Additional source for this story:
NATO troops in Afghanistan are insufficient to guarantee a swift victory for coalition troops there, the organization’s commander in the Asian country said in interviews for the British press published on Nov. 1.
Lieutenant-General David Richards, the British leader of the NATO troops in Afghanistan, also said that coalition soldiers would focus more attention on reconstruction within the country than on fighting the Taliban militia over the winter.
”If you said to me, if your aim is to win, I’d say no. I haven’t got enough (to) win this, say, in the next six months, but I can continue to make sufficient improvements to keep the people here confident in us and in their government,” Richards said, speaking to the Financial Times from Kabul.
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He also said that while he regularly called off military operations due to the risk to civilians, the “ultimate criminal” was the Taliban who used non-combatants as human shields.
”The ultimate criminal is the Taliban. I think it is quite amazing that there have not been more civilian casualties given the completely callous disregard of the Taliban for civilians.”
The general insisted that the “security situation has improved” but noted that “there are bound to be tactical blips and setbacks.”
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