The top NATO general in Afghanistan said that he rejects the idea that NATO is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.
But US General David McKiernan also said on Sunday he needs more military forces to tamp down the militants, and he painted a picture of a chaotic Afghan countryside where insurgents hold more power than the Afghan government seven years after the US-led invasion.
He said better governance and economic progress were vital.
“It is true that in many places of this country we don’t have an acceptable level of security. We don’t have good governance. We don’t have socio-economic progress,” he told a news conference in Kabul.
“We don’t have progress as evenly or as fast as many of us would like, but we are not losing Afghanistan,” he said.
In the country’s wild south, meanwhile, Taliban militants launched a surprise attack on the provincial capital of Helmand, sparking a battle that killed about 60 insurgents, an Afghan official said.
Militants attacked the town of Lashkar Gah from three sides early on Sunday and were pushed back only after a battle that involved NATO and Afghan troops and the use of airstrikes, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor. Rockets landed in different parts of the city but there were no civilian casualties, he said.
McKiernan said that hundreds of insurgents gathered for the attack, and a NATO statement said its aircraft bombed insurgent positions, killing “multiple enemy forces.”
“If the insurgents planned a spectacular attack prior to the winter, this was a spectacular failure,” said Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, the spokesman for the NATO-led force.
In a second battle in Helmand, Afghan and international troops retook the Nad Ali district center — which had been held by militants — during a three-day fight, Ahmadi said. That battle, which also involved airstrikes, ended on Saturday. About 40 militants were killed, he said.
Afghan police and soldiers are now in control of the district.
Ahmadi’s death tolls could not be verified independently.
Journalists are not able to travel to remote and dangerous battle sites. Afghan officials have been known to exaggerate death tolls in the past.
Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 4,800 people this year, an Associated Press count of shows. A record number of US and NATO soldiers have already died this year.
Also See: US teeters on the edge of swamp of uncertainty in Afghanistan
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was