BRUSSELS, June 11 (Reuters) - NATO warned on Friday of tough times ahead in Afghanistan and said success was not yet assured in its struggle against a widening Taliban insurgency.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a meeting of defence ministers of the 28 NATO states the alliance force in Afghanistan was facing fierce resistance from insurgents in the Taliban heartlands of Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
A statement by the ministers said military operations were making "measured progress" in extending the reach of the Afghan government and marginalising the insurgency. However, it added:
"Significant challenges remain, and success is not yet assured."
Rasmussen said NATO needed to step up its training effort to allow the start of a handover of security responsibility to Afghan forces, hopefully by the end of the year. But he said NATO’s commitment would be long term.
"There will be many difficult days ahead but a stable, sovereign Afghanistan means a safer world for all of us and we will do what is necessary for as long as necessary to make it happen," he said.
SOBER ASSESSMENT
The sober assessment of the difficulties facing a mission now involving more than 122,000 foreign troops and worsening casualties came after the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said a long-awaited campaign in the Taliban’s birthplace Kandahar would unfold more slowly than planned.
Citing shortcomings that set back the last big U.S.-led offensive in neighbouring Helmand, General Stanley McChrystal said on Thursday he wanted more time to shore up Afghan support for the campaign in Kandahar and to prepare local authorities to provide services when security improves.
The decision to move more slowly on what has been billed as the biggest operation of the nearly nine-year-old war adds to doubt about what can be achieved by this year’s end, when the White House is holding a review and demanding signs of progress.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said gains would need to be seen by then in order to maintain public support for the war in NATO countries, which has eroded as the death toll has risen. At least 17 foreign troops have been killed this week.
The massive military operation in Kandahar is the linchpin of McChrystal’s strategy to turn the tide this year, using the bulk of 30,000 reinforcements sent by U.S. President Barack Obama in a final "surge" of extra troops announced in December.
Obama embraced a counterinsurgency strategy devised by McChrystal last year that aims to push the Taliban from key population centres. But in agreeing to send McChrystal extra troops, the White House also set a goal of starting a gradual withdrawal in July 2011, making the next 12 months critical.
