Taliban getting upper hand says US general

[AhlulbaytSoldier]

THE top US military commander in Afghanistan says the Taliban have gained the upper hand in the country, forcing the US to change its strategy by increasing the number of troops in heavily populated areas, The Wall Street Journal reported today.
General Stanley McChrystal told the newspaper in an interview the militant group was moving beyond its traditional strongholds in southern Afghanistan to threaten formerly stable areas in the north and west.

The militants are mounting sophisticated attacks that combine roadside bombs with ambushes by small teams of heavily armed militants, causing significant numbers of US fatalities, the general said, according to the report.

"It's a very aggressive enemy right now,'' Gen McChrystal is quoted by the Journal as saying in his office in a fortified NATO compound in Kabul.

"We've got to stop their momentum, stop their initiative. It's hard work.''

The commander said the troop shifts are designed to better protect Afghan civilians from rising levels of Taliban violence and intimidation.

The coming redeployments are the clearest manifestation to date of Gen McChrystal's strategy for Afghanistan, which puts a premium on safeguarding the Afghan population rather than hunting down militants, the paper said.

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Some US military officials believe the Taliban have taken advantage of the US offensive in the northern Helmand province to infiltrate the southern city of Kandahar and set up shadow local governments and courts throughout the city, The Journal said.

Gen McChrystal said he planned to shift more US troops to Kandahar to bolster the Canadian forces that currently have primary security responsibility for the region, the paper reported.

"It's important and so we're going to do whatever we got to do to ensure that Kandahar is secure,'' the general is quoted as saying.

"With the arrival of the new US forces we'll have the ability to put some more combat power in the area.''

Gen McChrystal also said he would direct a "very significant'' expansion of the Afghan army and national police, which would double in size under the plans being finalised by senior US military officers, according to the report.

The yankees dont seem to understand that the pashtuns are a warlike nation.