Nato’s top commander has urged member states to commit more troops for the fight against the Taleban insurgency in southern Afghanistan before the guerrillas melt away for the winter months.
General James L. Jones made the call after admitting that the alliance had been surprised by the extent of violence since Nato extended its peacekeeping mission into the region a month ago.
He also acknowledged that countries had been reluctant to commit troops to the international force, which has sustained increasing casualties due to fierce fighting with Taleban guerrillas, who were prepared to stand and fight rather than deploying their usual hit-and-run tactics.
Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan today acknowledged that al-Qaeda and Taleban militants did cross from Pakistan to launch attacks inside Afghanistan, but denied his Government sponsored them.
"You blame us for what is happening in Afghanistan," Mr Musharraf told Afghan government and army officials. "Let me say neither the Government of Pakistan nor ISI (Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence) is involved in any kind of interference inside Afghanistan."
General Musharraf was speaking a day after he and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan pledged to co-operate to fight the "common enemy" of terrorism and extremism.
Since Nato took over military operations in the region from the American-led coalition, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have taken lead roles in the mission, contributing around 8,000 troops.
However, the rising death toll has prompted calls for the Canadian Government to rethink its military mission in the conflict-ridden country. Some Dutch and German lawmakers have also voiced fresh misgivings.
But General Jones added that the coming weeks could be decisive in the fight against the Taleban and that he was confident Nato forces could win the battle.
He said that commanders on the ground had asked for several hundred additional troops, more helicopters and transport aircraft.
"We are talking about modest reinforcements," he told reporters at Nato’s European military headquarters in Mons, Belgium.
"It will help us reduce casualties and help us bring this to a successful conclusion in a shorter period of time."
General Jones is due to meet generals from the 26 Nato nations tomorrow and Saturday in Warsaw, Poland, to generate further troops and resources needed for the mission.
He said he was confident the meeting would yield results and that he would turn initially to existing contributors to the 37-nation International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
Isaf has lost 21 soldiers from fighting this year, with 80 wounded not including the 21 deaths and 37 injuries from non-battle related incidents such as the crash of a British spy plane which killed 14.
General Jones also said he would plead with nations to remove restrictions on how and where a country’s troops can be used.
"We really need to get nations to remove caveats. We would like to have nations come to the theatre and say ’you can use my forces across the spectrum’."
He said: "In the relatively near future, certainly before the winter, we will see this decisive moment in the region turn in favour of the troops that represent the government."
"This is not a desperate move, it is more of an insurance package."
"We are deploying our forces in such a way as we want to fix them and obviously we want to destroy (the Taleban) as best we can. Having some extra manoeuvre forces on the ground allows us to maintain the pressure in the pockets where we’ve located them and to bring this to a close."
General Jones, from the US military, said that the plan was to "destroy" the Taleban fighters before they headed back into the mountains with the onset of winter in the next few weeks.
He admitted that an earlier meeting on August 25 at Nato’s military headquarters "did not yield any additional troops that we would like to have had."
He also criticised the international community for not matching the military effort in Afghanistan with more help to the country to develop its economy, build up its police force and judicial services and - in particular - to help authorities in tackling the country’s burgeoning narcotics problem.
"The future of Afghanistan will not be determined by the military," he said.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Secretary-General of Nato, joined his appeal, saying that there were "certainly a number of allies who can do more."
"Those allies who perhaps are doing less in Afghanistan should think: Shouldn’t we do more?", he said.
Although neither singled out individual member states, diplomats say there is pressure on countries such as Germany and Spain, which have several thousand troops in the relatively calm north of Afghanistan, to offer reinforcements in the south.
A German Defence Ministry spokesman played down prospects of Berlin redeploying any of its 2,700 soldiers, saying: "It is still the case that our focus is on the northern region."
Tim Albone, Times Correspondent in Afghanistan, said that General Jones’s comments were a public acknowledgement that troops have been lacking the means needed to defeat the insurgency.
"This is a major recognition that more resources are needed. Privately, people on the ground have been saying this for some time," he said.
"One of the major problems is the shortage of helicopters which are needed to transport weapons and soldiers, as it’s too dangerous to drive around.
"Nato are also admitting that the Taleban have taken the forces by surprise. When British troops entered Helmand province, there was very little intelligence available about the numbers they faced and where local sympathies lay. That’s made the job all the more difficult."
The violence continued yesterday, as militants reclaimed the provincial town of Garmser in southern Helmand after police fled their compound, according to a local police chief.
Major Scott Lundy, a Nato spokesperson, confirmed clashes had occurred in the town but was unaware that police had left.
In other violence today, Afghan police killed four Taleban fighters in the Zurmat district in south-eastern Paktiya province, according to local police. Three Taleban were arrested and three others fled.
A roadside bomb killed two police and wounded four in neighbouring Paktika province yesterday, while in a separate incident, one Taleban fighter was killed and seven wounded in two clashes in Ghazni province.
