Vienna - As Taliban fighters increase their activities in Afghanistan, NATO allies need to provide better-equipped troops rather than more soldiers, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe said in Vienna on Wednesday. Although the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would benefit from additional troops, the priority was the provision of transport, intelligence and medical capabilities, US General John Craddock told journalists.
"Too often, the forces there now are relatively fixed, because we don't have adequate tactical mobility to move them around to be able to do the jobs we need them to do," said Craddock, who was in Vienna to brief member states of the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) about the situation in Afghanistan.
This spring, there has been a 41-per-cent increase in military engagements in eastern Afghanistan as Taliban fighters move back and forth across the border to Pakistan.
"We think it is essential that the Pakistani government and military regain control of that border area," the general said. Pakistan also needs to share intelligence on insurgents with ISAF and US-led allied forces, he said.
Craddock also called on allies to reduce restrictions on where or how their forces can operate in Afghanistan.
Currently, 52,700 troops from 40 NATO members and other countries are deployed under the ISAF command.
In his briefing to the OSCE, Craddock was especially critical of the fight against rising Afghan opium production, which accounted for 92 per cent of global output in 2007.
"Quite frankly the current counter-narcotics effort is ineffective," he said, according to an advance copy of his speech.
Although the Afghan army had become more effective, there was a need to increase international support for the national counter- narcotics force, General Craddock said.
The OSCE made a decision in late 2007 to strengthen its engagements in Afghanistan, especially in supporting border control, police training and drug control. So far, no concrete projects have been implemented.
