Afghans say NATO should be deployed where needed

KABUL – Afghanistan welcomed a NATO plan to send extra troops to protect September elections but stressed that they should be deployed in parts of the country where they are most needed.

NATO would raise the number of troops in its Afghan peacekeeping force to about 10 000 from 6 500 to help make the elections secure, said an official at a summit of alliance leaders in Istanbul yesterday. But diplomats said NATO did not yet have firm offers from allies for that many extra troops, a number that in any case falls short of the 5 000 the United Nations and the government have been seeking.”We welcome and appreciate any kind of help,” said a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, who left earlier yesterday to attend the summit.”The number is not as important as expanding NATO to other provinces and deploying the troops where we need them,” said the spokesman, Hamed Elmi.NATO has struggled to persuade members to commit more troops and has been criticised for providing a “bare minimum” to Afghanistan, despite declaring it is its number one priority when it took over what was its first out-of-theatre mission in August.UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned last week the polls could be postponed if security did not improve.The weekend saw a new round of attacks by militants who have vowed to derail the polls, which US President George W Bush is looking to for a policy success to balance against Iraq ahead of his November re-election bid.On Friday, Taliban guerrillas killed 16 people in a southern province after finding them with voter registration cards, the most serious attack yet on the election, and on Saturday, a bomb killed two young women poll workers in the eastern city of Jalalabad.On Sunday, gunmen killed seven policemen in the western province of Farah, one of the more secure parts of Afghanistan since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.- Nampa-ReutersBut diplomats said NATO did not yet have firm offers from allies for that many extra troops, a number that in any case falls short of the 5 000 the United Nations and the government have been seeking.”We welcome and appreciate any kind of help,” said a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, who left earlier yesterday to attend the summit.”The number is not as important as expanding NATO to other provinces and deploying the troops where we need them,” said the spokesman, Hamed Elmi.NATO has struggled to persuade members to commit more troops and has been criticised for providing a “bare minimum” to Afghanistan, despite declaring it is its number one priority when it took over what was its first out-of-theatre mission in August.UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned last week the polls could be postponed if security did not improve.The weekend saw a new round of attacks by militants who have vowed to derail the polls, which US President George W Bush is looking to for a policy success to balance against Iraq ahead of his November re-election bid.On Friday, Taliban guerrillas killed 16 people in a southern province after finding them with voter registration cards, the most serious attack yet on the election, and on Saturday, a bomb killed two young women poll workers in the eastern city of Jalalabad.On Sunday, gunmen killed seven policemen in the western province of Farah, one of the more secure parts of Afghanistan since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.- Nampa-Reuters