NATO confident of ‘end-game’ against Taliban in Afghanistan
By ANISunday, October 10, 2010
KABUL - NATO officials in Afghanistan have expressed confidence that their fight against the Taliban might be coming to an end.
According to some NATO commanders, the insurgency in the region is beginning to fragment following coalition forces’ escalating fight against the Taliban in recent months
The Hamid Karzai led-Afghanistan government’s efforts to facilitate peace talks with the militants have also helped the cause.
“You certainly see people who are putting down their weapon, picking up their shovel,” Globe and Mail quoted Major General Nick Carter, NATO chief in southern Afghanistan, as saying.
“I think you’ll see people coming forward and being secured by a family member, or whoever else it might be, and being reintegrated into society in a way that I suspect will be typically local and typically Pashtun.
“And then, I suppose, at the level above there may be something more grown-up in political terms, but I sense in our area it will be a much more local activity,” he added.
Many officials also believed that the Taliban is showing a willingness to come forward, as they are having trouble coping with increased troop levels and the higher tempo of NATO operations.
“The Taliban are taking loses they can’t sustain,” said US Colonel Dave Bellon, NATO’s chief of operations for southern Afghanistan. (ANI)
