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Xinhua - China Daily
(China Daily 07/22/2009 page11)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-07/22/content_8456664.htm
CANBERRA: Terrorist attacks could surge around the globe if coalition forces withdrew from Afghanistan, Australia's defense chief said yesterday.
Chief of the Defense Force and Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said a coalition withdrawal would lead to a civil war the Taliban most likely would win. There has already been a rise in insurgent violence ahead of presidential elections in Afghanistan next month.
Record casualties
Houston's remarks came on a day of news that had politicians in the US and Britain braced for similar defenses of the war effort.
CNN reported that four US soldiers were killed late on Monday in what the NATO command said was a roadside bombing. If confirmed, the deaths would raise the total of US military fatalities in Afghanistan to 30 in July, the highest monthly toll since US troops arrived in Afghanistan in October 2001; 659 have died over the course of the war.
Yesterday, a British soldier was killed while on patrol in southern Afghanistan, the 18th to die this month as the fighting in Helmand Province has intensified. His death brings to 187 the number of British servicemen killed since the war began in 2001.
Also yesterday, Taliban militants attacked three government buildings and a US base in two eastern cities Tuesday in near-simultaneous attacks, a signature of major Taliban assaults. Eight insurgents and six Afghan security forces died.
Houston told reporters Afghan security forces were not yet at the stage where they could prevail over the insurgent forces and that could take another four to five years.
There are currently about 90,000 coalition troops from about 40 nations in Afghanistan. About two-thirds of the soldiers are from the US, including 21,000 deployed this year.
Last week, the total of international military fatalities in Afghanistan for July surpassed the previous record tally for one month. The previous mark was 46; counting Monday's deaths, the total for July would be at least 56, according to a CNN count of official statistics.
Australia now has some 1,500 troops in Afghanistan, most operating in the dangerous southern region.
"If the Taliban were to prevail we would be likely to go back to the circumstances that we had before 2001 where the Taliban hosted groups like Al-Qaida," Houston said.
Prior to the Taliban's defeat, Al-Qaida had established extensive infrastructure to train their own and other terrorists from around the world, including some of those responsible for the 2002 Bali bombing.
He said terrorists sheltering in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region would move back into the valleys, conducting training and planning attacks around the world if the coalition was to withdraw.
'We have seen this before'
"We are likely to see major attacks effected in western countries, indeed any country around the world where the terrorists decide they need to have an effect. We have seen this before," he said.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the government was mindful of the human cost of the war against terror and that Afghanistan was once a terrorist training hub.
"Remember, terrorism and terrorists in southeast Asia have been trained in Afghanistan, let's always bear this in mind," he said.
(China Daily 07/22/2009 page11)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-07/22/content_8456664.htm
CANBERRA: Terrorist attacks could surge around the globe if coalition forces withdrew from Afghanistan, Australia's defense chief said yesterday.
Chief of the Defense Force and Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said a coalition withdrawal would lead to a civil war the Taliban most likely would win. There has already been a rise in insurgent violence ahead of presidential elections in Afghanistan next month.
Record casualties
Houston's remarks came on a day of news that had politicians in the US and Britain braced for similar defenses of the war effort.
CNN reported that four US soldiers were killed late on Monday in what the NATO command said was a roadside bombing. If confirmed, the deaths would raise the total of US military fatalities in Afghanistan to 30 in July, the highest monthly toll since US troops arrived in Afghanistan in October 2001; 659 have died over the course of the war.
Yesterday, a British soldier was killed while on patrol in southern Afghanistan, the 18th to die this month as the fighting in Helmand Province has intensified. His death brings to 187 the number of British servicemen killed since the war began in 2001.
Also yesterday, Taliban militants attacked three government buildings and a US base in two eastern cities Tuesday in near-simultaneous attacks, a signature of major Taliban assaults. Eight insurgents and six Afghan security forces died.
Houston told reporters Afghan security forces were not yet at the stage where they could prevail over the insurgent forces and that could take another four to five years.
There are currently about 90,000 coalition troops from about 40 nations in Afghanistan. About two-thirds of the soldiers are from the US, including 21,000 deployed this year.
Last week, the total of international military fatalities in Afghanistan for July surpassed the previous record tally for one month. The previous mark was 46; counting Monday's deaths, the total for July would be at least 56, according to a CNN count of official statistics.
Australia now has some 1,500 troops in Afghanistan, most operating in the dangerous southern region.
"If the Taliban were to prevail we would be likely to go back to the circumstances that we had before 2001 where the Taliban hosted groups like Al-Qaida," Houston said.
Prior to the Taliban's defeat, Al-Qaida had established extensive infrastructure to train their own and other terrorists from around the world, including some of those responsible for the 2002 Bali bombing.
He said terrorists sheltering in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region would move back into the valleys, conducting training and planning attacks around the world if the coalition was to withdraw.
'We have seen this before'
"We are likely to see major attacks effected in western countries, indeed any country around the world where the terrorists decide they need to have an effect. We have seen this before," he said.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the government was mindful of the human cost of the war against terror and that Afghanistan was once a terrorist training hub.
"Remember, terrorism and terrorists in southeast Asia have been trained in Afghanistan, let's always bear this in mind," he said.
