Safe havens in Pakistan challenge war effort: Pentagon
Taliban’s 2011 offensive was ‘stunted’ but remains resilient.
WASHINGTON:
Even as the United States begins to withdraw from Afghanistan, insurgents abetted by Pakistan pose the major threat to US-led forces, the Pentagon said on Friday.
Security has improved in recent months and enemy attacks are down in Afghanistan compared to a year ago, the Pentagon said in a twice-annual report to the US Congress. Nato and Afghan forces largely “stunted” the Taliban’s spring and summer offensive, although the insurgency remains adaptive and resilient, with a “significant regenerative capacity,” the report said.
But attacks from across the eastern border were up because of the support the insurgency received from safe havens in Pakistan, it said.
“Safe havens in Pakistan remain the insurgency’s greatest enabler,” the report said. These havens have grown more “virulent” in recent months “and are the most significant risk” to Nato’s campaign, it said.
The report comes as President Barack Obama’s administration has begun pulling surge forces from Afghanistan – withdrawing 10,000 this year and the remaining 23,000 by the end of September 2012.
Critics of Obama’s plan fear it could undermine the progress surge troops have made and point to faltering security in attacks in Afghanistan’s volatile east, along the porous border with Pakistan.
The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO), which advises aid and other groups on security, warned this month that the war appeared to be “escalating, not diminishing.”
The Pentagon said that recent high-profile attacks in Kabul, including a bold Sept. 13 strike on the US Embassy that rattled perceptions about security in the capital, were carried out by the Pakistan-based Haqqani network and “directly enabled by Pakistan safe haven and support.”
While high-profile attacks on “soft targets” have increased, overall enemy attacks were five percent lower than the same period a year earlier, said the report, which covers April 1 through Sept. 30. It said enemy attacks continue to decline.
Political impact
Assassinations and attacks directed from the safe havens in Pakistan could have a “significant political effect” in Afghanistan as well as coalition countries, the document said. Afghan perceptions of security had worsened slightly, it said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2011.
Even as the United States begins to withdraw from Afghanistan, insurgents abetted by Pakistan pose the major threat to US-led forces, the Pentagon said on Friday.
Security has improved in recent months and enemy attacks are down in Afghanistan compared to a year ago, the Pentagon said in a twice-annual report to the US Congress. Nato and Afghan forces largely “stunted” the Taliban’s spring and summer offensive, although the insurgency remains adaptive and resilient, with a “significant regenerative capacity,” the report said.
But attacks from across the eastern border were up because of the support the insurgency received from safe havens in Pakistan, it said.
“Safe havens in Pakistan remain the insurgency’s greatest enabler,” the report said. These havens have grown more “virulent” in recent months “and are the most significant risk” to Nato’s campaign, it said.
The report comes as President Barack Obama’s administration has begun pulling surge forces from Afghanistan – withdrawing 10,000 this year and the remaining 23,000 by the end of September 2012.
Critics of Obama’s plan fear it could undermine the progress surge troops have made and point to faltering security in attacks in Afghanistan’s volatile east, along the porous border with Pakistan.
The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO), which advises aid and other groups on security, warned this month that the war appeared to be “escalating, not diminishing.”
The Pentagon said that recent high-profile attacks in Kabul, including a bold Sept. 13 strike on the US Embassy that rattled perceptions about security in the capital, were carried out by the Pakistan-based Haqqani network and “directly enabled by Pakistan safe haven and support.”
While high-profile attacks on “soft targets” have increased, overall enemy attacks were five percent lower than the same period a year earlier, said the report, which covers April 1 through Sept. 30. It said enemy attacks continue to decline.
Political impact
Assassinations and attacks directed from the safe havens in Pakistan could have a “significant political effect” in Afghanistan as well as coalition countries, the document said. Afghan perceptions of security had worsened slightly, it said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2011.