Nato is not losing the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, but there are not enough troops to provide sufficient security for the people, the commander of international troops in Afghanistan said on Sunday.
Spiralling and seemingly unending violence in Afghanistan has led to a number of military and political leaders issuing dire warnings for the country where at least 4,000 people, a third of them civilians, have been killed in this year alone.
"We are not losing in Afghanistan," General David McKiernan told a news conference. But, he said, "we have insufficient security forces here to adequately provide for the security of the people of Afghanistan."
The commander of British troops in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, last week said Nato was not going to win the war, but the aim was to reduce the insurgency to a level where it could be managed by Afghan forces.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates dismissed the British brigadier's comments as "defeatism".
McKiernan said what was most needed was more Afghan soldiers and police, but until those forces were large enough and capable of ensuring security, the will of the international community to continue to send troops to fight remained paramount.
"We do not have enough security forces everywhere in Afghanistan for the size of this country and the population and the geography and the insurgency, so we need more contributions," he said.
MORE TROOPS:
McKiernan last month said he needed three more brigades plus support units - possibly some 15,000 troops - on top of 4,000 extra US troops already scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan.
But more troops alone would not ensure victory, said McKiernan, stressing the need for good governance and economic development in addition to security.
"We certainly need more military forces here. But I will be the first to tell you that additional military forces by themselves will not guarantee victory for the Afghan people," he said.
"I do believe that the people of Afghanistan will win in this country. It's not as fast and even as all of us would like it to be. But we will win, and win means the people of Afghanistan will win," he said.
In the latest wave of violence, Afghan and Nato-led forces killed 65 Taliban militants preparing to attack the provincial capital of the southern province of Helmand, the provincial governor's spokesman Daud Ahmadi said on Sunday.
The leader of the group of Taliban militants, Mullah Qudratullah, was also among the dead, he said, but there were no casualties among Afghan and Nato forces. Most Nato troops in Helmand are British.
"A large number of insurgents in the hundreds were detected and were acted upon by a combined operation, a partnered operation between Task Force Helmand and the Afghan National Army," McKiernan said.
"A large number of insurgents have been killed. I have not heard of reports of civilian collateral damage or civilian casualties," he said.
Britain has some 8,000 troops in the mainly desert province, which is bisected by a lush strip of land irrigated by the Helmand River where about half the world's opium is grown.
British troops have been engaged in almost daily battles with Taliban militants in Helmand since they moved into the province in 2006, but the capital Lashkar Gah has been relatively quiet.
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