16 Air Assault Brigade prepare for Afghanistan

16 Air Assault Brigade, the first UK troops to enter Helmand province in 2002 and support the International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF's) efforts to create stability in Afghanistan, are preparing to travel back for their fourth Afghan deployment.

Report by Leigh Hamilton

Brigadier James Chiswell

16 Air Assault Brigade last returned to the UK from Afghanistan in October 2008. They are currently taking part in a tough mission rehearsal exercise on Salisbury Plain to ensure that they're ready for Operation HERRICK 13.

The 7,500-person brigade consists of four infantry battalions, two parachute battalions and most of the Army's aviation, including all the UK's attack helicopters and a regiment of Lynx aircraft, as well as the service support such as gunners, logisticians and engineers.

16 Air Assault Brigade will take over from 4th Mechanized Brigade in Afghanistan in October this year to continue the work to create a stable Afghanistan for the civilians living there, as well as supporting the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police.

Private James Nelson from 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment during 16 Air Assault Brigade's final training exercise on the Salisbury Plain Training Area

With months of training under their belts, the troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade are well prepared for the challenging situation that they will encounter when they deploy in October 2010, but they also know that it won't be easy.

The Brigade Commander, Brigadier James Chiswell, said:

"There is a professional resolve. The security situation is difficult, but we do difficult and that's why we're there.

To see the full article click here

Pictures: Sergeant Adrian Harlen & Richard Watt

ISAF newspapers find new use as school books

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) newspapers are being used by local elders in the Nad 'Ali district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, to educate children in three languages.

Warrant Officer Taff Davies helps Afghan children with their reading skills

The newspapers are printed in Dari, Pashtu and English, allowing the children to learn their local language as well as English.

Warrant Officer William 'Taff' Davies, Royal Air Force, is part of the Military Stabilisation Support Team working with soldiers from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment as part of Combined Force Nad 'Ali.

Warrant Officer Davies and his team have been working with both the local village elders and the Education Minister to help improve education for the village children.

The school in the village near Patrol Base Shahzad was destroyed by insurgents so the local elders now teach the schoolchildren in temporary locations and the patrol base provides a secure and ideal setting for education.

Warrant Officer Davies said:

"I was confused as to why they wanted to take so many copies of our newspapers until a local elder told me that the newspaper is an invaluable source of information and education."

Afghan children using ISAF newspapers printed in Dari, Pashtu and English to improve their reading skills

A shura - or meeting - that was recently held to discuss the educational requirements of the local children resulted in confirmation from the provincial Education Minister that a new school would be provided as part of a development project.

Warrant Officer Davies said:

"In the meantime, the Military Stabilisation Support Team is providing valuable resources in the form of schoolbooks and pens, along with the newspapers, to facilitate the children's education."

Part of the Military Stabilisation Support Group, Military Stabilisation Support Teams work alongside infantry battle groups in Afghanistan to promote stabilisation and report on local needs to the Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Organising projects such as providing school resources, wheat seed distribution or building roads help the local Afghan population build civil society and infrastructure for themselves, reducing the influence of insurgents and showing the benefits of legitimate Afghan Government control.

Picture: Corporal Gary Kendall RLC

Countering Taliban IEDs with intelligence, training and equipment

The International Security Assistance Force's strategy for defeating the improvised explosive device threat in Afghanistan can be characterised by three main elements - attacking the system, defeating the device and preparing the force - senior British officers said yesterday.

A soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh's Fire Support Company searches for improvised explosive devices during a patrol in Nad 'Ali

Major General Gordon Messenger, the Chief of the Defence Staff's Strategic Communications Officer, and Colonel Peter Smith, Assistant Director of Counter-IED at Land Forces Headquarters, reiterated that the IED menace is being countered through intelligence, training and equipment at a briefing to the media in MOD's Main Building on Thursday 1 July 2010.

Reminding the audience that while improvised explosive devices are far from a new phenomenon and that around 300 are found every month outside Iraq and Afghanistan, Major General Messenger said that it was in Afghanistan that their use had become 'unprecedented'.

Major General Messenger said that the fight against the IED threat was far more than the lone bomb disposal expert on the ground and the 'long walk' to disarming the device. He said it was a pan-defence and pan-government effort taking in expertise and resources not only from the military but from the Foreign Office, Home Office and police, as well as many others in the UK and abroad.

It is these other departments and agencies that, along with Defence, are working on the first pillar of the strategy - 'attacking the system'.

Major General Messenger explained:

"Whilst we are absolutely continuing to pay utmost attention to 'defeat the device' and continue to plough enormous amounts of energy, investment and technology into improving that, it will never be the sole card that plays the trick and we are putting a lot more into 'attacking the system'.

"This is about preventing the IED being laid in the first place and here it is about understanding the organisations and the networks that are responsible for placing these in the ground.

"Here we have to view the people that do this as nothing more than criminals, part of criminal networks, and therefore tackled in the same way that anyone would tackle a criminal network.

"That requires us to understand that network and it requires an enormous intelligence-gathering effort, the span of which would be difficult to describe."

Two large containers packed with homemade explosives discovered at Forward Operating Base Talibjan

He went on to say that at the low-tech end of the market UK forces in Afghanistan are increasingly understanding this network for themselves and providing essential information:

"The guys on the ground are learning more and more about the threat that they face and therefore developing their means of tackling it," Major General Messenger said.

He added that there is also a very substantial high-tech approach to the problem, not only in deployment of cross-government agencies from this country and from other nations, but also through things like airborne surveillance and other means of collecting intelligence which require a very high level of technology:

"We are improving all the time our ability in what we call 'permanent wide area surveillance' so that we can identify nefarious activity as it is being conducted and work it back to attacking the network.

"That is not a panacea and never will be a panacea - it has to be seen as an overall approach. But the bottom line is every single member of the task force is part of that intelligence-gathering effort.

"Part of that is gathering forensics, analysing the forensics and knowing what constitutes something of intelligence value and what doesn't. That is something that is much more instinctive in the minds of every soldier."

Major General Messenger stressed that there is an international dimension to this intelligence-gathering effort, and it's not simply the Brits doing it alone:

"We are also looking beyond Afghanistan in terms of the provision of some of the more sophisticated components and in the provision of finance that supports these networks.

"We are also working hard with the Afghan Government in this regard and there have been a number of legislative changes which support this.

A soldier practises detecting improvised explosive devices

"An example would be the recent banning of ammonium nitrate by the Afghan Government, ammonium nitrate being a fertiliser that can be very quickly used to generate homemade explosives.

"But at the heart of attacking the system is good, honest counter-insurgency. It is about separating the population from the insurgent so that insurgents cannot feel comfortable and cannot operate with impunity.

"We are quite often seeing villages with a lot of IEDs in their area coming to us and saying we can't go about our business, and clearance operations are being targeted to clear these areas to allow entire villages to go about their business with a degree of normality."

Moving to the second pillar of the strategy, Major General Messenger explained that 'defeating the device' is about finding these devices once they have been placed and neutralising and destroying them once they have been found:

"In terms of our ability to find and detect the devices we are at the cutting-edge of science in providing technology to people on the ground to find these devices before they go off," Major General Messenger said.

"There is much more sharing of information internationally on the technology but the UK capability is as good and if not better than anything else that is out there, and is recognised as such by those in the field in Afghanistan.

"But it isn't just about technology, it is about understanding the terrain that you are operating in and it is about fairly low level ability to detect change and detect ground signs. It is here that we find that operating alongside the Afghans in a partnering approach is paying real dividends.

"We are also seeing much more in hand-ins and indications from the local population which is a sign that a) they feel highly threatened by this threat but also b) that they feel sufficiently comfortable to do so.

"What we are therefore achieving is a significantly higher rate of find, and the ratio of find to explode is good and getting better.

A Trojan armoured engineer tank in Helmand province - Trojan vehicles can be equipped with the Python trailer-mounted, rocket-propelled mine-clearing system

"On protected mobility, the level of protection that is afforded our people, both individual protection and when in-vehicle, is as good if not better than anyone else. And again this is at the very cutting-edge of technology.

"But the problem is in a population-focused campaign you have to get out of those vehicles and the bottom line is you can't out-armour your way out of this problem."

Finally, Major General Messenger explained that the third element of the strategy was about 'preparing the force' and that this issue is now in the 'bloodstream' of everyone in uniform, and the counter-IED awareness goes right back to basic training:

"This is not simply about pre-deployment training, this is something that everyone is acutely aware of.

"We are not simply training the UK troops, we are also training the Afghan security forces in this regard, and we are also improving the awareness of the Afghan population through a series of shuras and meetings to make sure they understand what they can do about it.

"We are training people not just to be defensive, we are training people to attack the system, and that involves the instinct for intelligence-gathering and an instinct for forensic awareness."

He said that there has been heavy investment in the training estate in this country and many bases now have training lanes to allow troops to develop not only the technical skills to find and neutralise devices but also the situational awareness to spot the tell-tale signs.

Pictures: Corporal Barry Lloyd RLC, Staff Sergeant Mark Jones.

General Parker - 300th fatality must not cloud our judgement

Lieutenant General Sir Nick Parker, Deputy Commander of ISAF and Colonel Commandant of The Rifles, said:

"The death of the 300th British soldier in Afghanistan must not cloud our judgement.

"As the cost of our commitment is marked by this sad milestone, it is important to remember that every fatality in Afghanistan is terrible for family, friends and fellow soldiers; this is just as true for the first as for the 300th of our fallen.

"Nor must we forget those who have suffered life-changing injuries. It is self-evident that, for those intimately connected with these heartbreaking events, there can be little consolation, and at a personal level I very much doubt that the sacrifice of their loved ones can ever be 'worth it'.

"But conflict is tough. There will be casualties, and, if we cannot see beyond the personal grief that surrounds every fatality, we risk making poor judgements. The consequences of this would be even more tragic - and not just for those who pay the ultimate price. The plan for Afghanistan is on track and now is the time to hold our nerve.

"As you think of our men and women serving in Helmand, please remember that they do not want sympathy - they are enormously proud of their collective endeavour. But what they do need and want is the continued support of the public.

"Our commitment to Afghanistan has lasted just under nine years. Success has been hard won and progress can seem slow, but we are at a critical moment and we need steady nerves and clear thinking.

"General Stanley McChrystal's arrival in Afghanistan has brought a new approach and a sense of optimism to the International Security Assistance Force. He has reinvigorated operations by focusing on protecting the population.

"We must respect Afghan sovereignty and hand them back full responsibility for their country as soon as practical. Our plan focuses on undermining the insurgency where it is at its strongest and this is supported by a significant increase in US and NATO troops.

"As the insurgents see the Afghan National Security Forces maturing and taking over from international forces, Afghan-led security will become a credible prospect. But we will not achieve it without continuing sacrifice. For ISAF, this will be a hard summer.

"Security will provide the platform on which to build sustainable success. While we are still challenging the insurgency on the periphery of the populated areas, in Nad 'Ali in central Helmand, British forces are working closely with the Afghan Army and Police.

"There is real evidence of improved security. Community councils have been elected that represent the views of previously disenfranchised people to a dynamic and effective district governor. The bazaar is thriving and the road to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, is secure and enables free movement and trade.

"But this is not a conventional war and improved security will not be decisive. Success must come from a combination of the international community's commitment to long-term aid, building the credibility of the Afghan administration and a coherent political approach that will stop the conflict when conditions are right.

"President Karzai's trip to Washington last month set the conditions for a long-term plan, founded in a strategic agreement between Afghanistan and the US that will be developed this year.

"This, coupled with the vital investment of other international partners including the UK, will underwrite Afghanistan's future. It provides the 'prize' of enduring support to a normal, developing country.

"The credibility of the Afghan administration is also key. The Government's ability to influence events outside Kabul is limited and its bureaucracy is fragile. Our task is not to run roughshod over its emerging capability, but to respect Afghan sovereignty.

"We must accept Afghan leadership and solutions and the international community's approach must be better co-ordinated and aligned. The appointment of Mark Sedwill as NATO's senior civilian representative has helped to integrate the ISAF plan with international community efforts, but this area still demands plenty of attention.

"The most important ingredient of success is an aggressive political strategy that can build on the improving security. It should draw further strength from improvements in governance and development and a sense of the inevitability of progress.

"This is not, conventionally, a soldier's business, but it is something that we all depend on if our efforts are to be exploited effectively. The Prime Minister has said that we are six months into an 18-month military surge; the security element of that strategy is now well set to support the other actors who will play a part in resolving the conflict."

Armed Forces Minister visits Troops in Afghanistan

Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Nick Harvey MP, has undertaken his first visit to Afghanistan since he took up post in the Ministry of Defence last month.

Armed Forces Minister, Nick Harvey MP, visits troops in Afghanistan

Joined on the visit by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, Mr Harvey is the first Liberal Democrat member of the new coalition government to visit an operational theatre.

Mr Harvey, the Member of Parliament for North Devon, and Admiral Stanhope, the professional head of the Royal Navy, visited British troops serving in Helmand province as part of 4 Mechanised Brigade, including Royal Marines from Somerset-based 40 Commando and Royal Navy medical staff based at Camp Bastion.

The minister and the Navy chief spent time chatting to servicemen and women about their experiences serving as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission, asking them about the challenges they face as well as the progress they see on a day-to-day basis.

As part of the new Minister's packed fact-finding schedule, he saw the work of British and ISAF forces in Helmand and elsewhere, including Royal Air Force personnel at Kandahar Airfield and staff based at Headquarters ISAF in Afghan capital Kabul.

He was briefed by British and US military commanders including receiving a detailed brief from Brigadier Richard Felton, the Commander of Task Force Helmand.

Armed Forces Minister, Nick Harvey MP, is briefed by the Commander of Task Force Helmand, Brigadier Richard Felton (right), during his trip to Afghanistan

He had meetings with Afghan ministers, visited medical facilities and took a look at the work of the British-led Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team, which supports the Afghan government in delivering effective security and governance across the province.

The Minister then flew by helicopter to Check Point Tapa Paraang in Lashkar Gah where he met soldiers from the 1st Battalion Scots Guards.

He saw the accommodation where the soldiers live and work before the Commanding Officer of the Scots Guards, Lieutenant Colonel Lincoln Jopp, pointed out aspects of the area of operations from a vantage point on the roof of the accommodation.

Mr Harvey also met a Military Stabilisation Support Team who talked him through the work that they do on the ground to interact with and reassure the local population.

Mr Harvey said, "I last visited Afghanistan two years ago and this trip has shown me the vast amount of progress that has been made in that time.

"Under General McChrystal there have been vast changes not only militarily but also politically. It will be a long road but Afghanistan is on the way to being a country that stands on its own feet."

The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, visited marines from 40 Commando at FOB Jackson

Warrant Officer Class 2 (Company Sergeant Major) Andrew Johnstone from
1 Scots Guards, said:

"It's good that the Minister came out to see exactly what it is that we're doing here. I think by seeing the base here he can appreciate how hard we work and the steps we have taken to improve security in the Lashkar Gah area.

"It's a boost for the lads to be able to ask questions and speak directly to the politicians that are making the decisions which affect them, I think that's really important."

Meanwhile, Admiral Stanhope travelled by helicopter to Sangin, where British forces work alongside their Afghan counterparts in dangerous but crucial counter-insurgency operations.

Here he received a detailed ground brief from the Commanding Officer of 40 Commando Royal Marines, Lieutenant Colonel Paul James, visited forward operating bases, and was given a demonstration of the latest kit being used in the area including the new Sharpshooter and sniper rifles.

Armed Forces Minister, Nick Harvey MP, meets British troops during his trip to Afghanistan

Admiral Stanhope said, "It was excellent to see at first hand all the hard work being done by the Royal Marines and Naval personnel in Afghanistan.

"The Royal Marines in Sangin, in particular, have shown immense courage in what has been a hard tour so far but the progress they have made is clear to see. They are working with the ANSF to make Sangin a safer place for the local population and thereby contribute to a more secure Afghanistan and a safer world."

The visit follows a recent trip to Afghanistan by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup. During this visit, the Prime Minister announced the doubling of the operational allowance for deployed service personnel and an additional £67m of investment in technology, equipment and manning to counter the threat of improvised explosive devices.

The Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox, also recently visited Afghanistan alongside the Foreign Secretary William Hague and the International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell.

Pictures: Corporal Gary Kendall RLC

Joint ANA / ISAF Search Operation

A contribution from 3 Rifles: Joint ANA / ISAF search operation in south wishtan disrupts insurgents and gives locals improved confidence in security.

The urban area of southern Wishtan is a complex web of intricate alleyways which houses many of the poorer members of Sangin society, often from the Ishaqzai tribe. They are especially vulnerable to influence by the insurgency, for money and, at times, prestige. The nature of the ground in the area affords insurgents relative freedom of movement and during attacks they have been seen to use mosques and madrassas to move weapons. Following a number of different attacks an accurate picture of the enemy’s modus operandi was developed and the ANA planned an operation to search suspect locations. The two targets were a mosque and a madrassa, the latter a location which had been found during an earlier patrol to carry anti-ISAF propaganda. In addition, the madrassa Mullah’s son attacked ISAF earlier in March with small arms fire and was detained having been wounded during the ISAF precision counter-attack that resulted.


It is interesting that the Mullah exhorted his support for ISAF during the search despite his son’s insurgent allegiance and the anti-ISAF murals in his madrassa. While he may have been dissembling, there is the real possibility of a man intimidated by the insurgency – stuck between a rock and a hard place. The division present in some families in Sangin is tragic and represents the effect of relentless conflict. Many of the traditional tribal, family and social structures have been badly damaged by war and it is for this reason that the new District Governor, Mohammed Sharif, has made tribal unity his highest priority.


The planning for this operation started 4 days before it was executed. On the ground, the ANA led during the entire search. The ANA commanders knew many of the occupants in each target - this detailed local knowledge is something ISAF find difficult to replicate and shows the immense value of the Combined Force. In depth of the search were troops from three different ISAF companies, some mounted, some dismounted. The insurgents actively tried to disrupt the search and there was constant scouting of ISAF and ANA positions from a number of different areas. However, due to the strength in Combined Force numbers they could not mount an attack. This display of confidence has improved the local perception of GiROA security, and the details collected on locals in the area of the search have improved understanding in a complex area with its intricate network of tribes.

Interview: General Stanley McChrystal

By Toby Harnden in Kabul, Telegraph

General Stanley McChrystal designed his Situational Awareness Room so it would gear up the American military for the information technology era just as Winston Churchill's map room equipped Britain for war in the industrial age.



At Nato's Kabul headquarters, his dozen or so key advisers sit behind computers around a u-shaped table opposite eight screens that scroll down intelligence reports, news headlines and operational updates of Improvised Explosives Device (IED) attacks and air strikes across Afghanistan.

When he's not visiting troops or conferring with Afghans, Gen McChrystal, a lean, intense and ascetic Special Forces veteran, is usually in the SAR, where he also conducts three or four video teleconferences a day, sometimes with the White House and Pentagon. Up to 50 people crowd into the room for his daily morning updates.

The SAR is part of the McChrystal vision for a flatter, less hierarchical way of waging war where information is shared and assumptions challenged. Every other week, he conducts a 45-minute virtual "town hall" meeting in which troops use a chat room to ask questions and he responds over streaming audio.

Gen McChrystal is the man charged by President Barack Obama with turning around a war within the space of 18 months after more than eight years of steady drift towards strategic defeat.

He spoke to The Daily Telegraph about his plan for revolutionising ways of fighting by focusing on the Afghan people rather than on the Taliban.

"Your security comes from the people," he said. "You don't need to be secured away from the people. You need to be secured by the people. So as you win their support, it's in their interests to secure you, to report IEDs."

This can mean patrolling without armoured vehicles or even flak jackets. It means accepting greater short-term risk – and higher casualties – in the hope of winning a "battle of perceptions and perspectives" that will result in longer-term security.

"If we respond with overwhelming fire to limited small arms fire from a compound we do protect ourselves but we destroy their livelihood and potentially the people," he said.

"Even when we run around in armoured vehicles or personal armour we often send an unintended message that we're more important than they are. If we've got more armour but in reality the people are at more risk they have to question the degree to which we really are protecting them."

Two months after he took command in June, after his predecessor Gen David McKiernan was fired, Gen McChrystal warned that the Nato forces were close to an "outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible".

Since then, US Marines and British troops, along with Afghan forces, cleared the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Helmand in Operation Moshtarak.

Civilian casualties have been reduced and US forces are in the process of being increased by 30,000 – a doubling of the force in place a year ago.

"I don't think we've reversed the momentum yet," he said. "I think the situation is still serious but I don't think it's deteriorating now."

The glimmer of hope is that Afghans "do sense something different" – even though confidence in President Hamid Karzai's government has plummeted and "the insurgency has gotten to where it threatens more people, more hours of the day".

Gen McChrystal said: "They're much more open minded than I sensed even a few months ago ... But they're unconvinced. They're right in the middle – 'Yeah, we want to believe but you just haven't given us enough yet to believe'.

"In places where their security is pretty good, people need to be convinced more. In places where their security is very weak it's a very practical issue of survival – they can't afford to believe openly until they can be sure we will protect them."

As a way of gauging the shifting opinions of ordinary Afghans, Gen McChrystal regularly meets a group of students. A man of legendary single-mindedness, the 55-year-old, who took part in Special Forces combat missions in Iraq up until 2007, has brought a new seriousness to Nato headquarters.

He eats once a day – what one aide described as a "big ass meal" in the evening – and munches on pretzels the rest of the day. He also runs once a day at a ferocious pace, covering some eight miles in an hour while listening to books, including works by Winston Churchill and about Horatio Nelson, on his Kindle.

Alcohol is now banned at the headquarters and he has just ordered that Burger King and Pizza Hut fast food outlets on Americans bases be closed.

The next big test for Nato and Gen McChrystal will be a summer offensive against Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban and the birthplace of its one-eyed leader Mullah Omar, which is increasingly under the influence of the insurgency.

Breaking with traditional military doctrine, Gen McChrystal is announcing the Kandahar objective months ahead of time even though this gives the enemy a chance to prepare. "Telegraphing our punch is important because we've said that we are going to do effective counter-insurgency, protect and respect the people."

He continued: "It's also not a bad thing for us to communicate that to the enemy as well because we say, 'We are going to do this and the reality is, you can't stop us'." It is inevitable that "the insurgents will make a tremendous effort to upset this and prevent it" and "they'll have to use mostly assymetric tactics, which means they'll plant IEDs, use suicide bombers".

This, he argued, means that two different visions of Afghanistan would be presented. The Taliban "blowing up civilians is not going to be particularly compelling ... the people will get a fair chance to view and make their choice".

The biggest challenge, he conceded, was something largely out of his control – the ineffectiveness and corruption of the Karzai government.

He said: "The government of Afghanistan has got to get control of that to a degree where the people believe it's at least an acceptable political environment".

What is needed is "probably a hybrid of using natural leaders in the community and their natural traditional structure like shuras and jirgas".

He added: "In some cases it's using sharia law down at the local level to get timely and fair justice. But that's got to be linked to a central government that's credible." Eventually, he predicted, senior Taliban figures would opt to cut a deal.

Military success by Nato would lead to the Taliban being "in the position, 'If we cant win and continue to fight on and be potentially killed or captured or we can say OK, what could we do to get into the political process'".

Until then, however, Special Forces would be used to kill as many senior Taliban as possible with little consideration of which ones might eventually come to the negotiating table.

"You need not let yourself be too constrained because the Taliban leaders need to understand that the willingness for their ability to make an accommodation is not endless and so if they're going to be out there as functioning insurgent leaders they are at risk," he said.

"If they send a message that they're interested in working with the government then I think there's room to consider not targeting them. But just because somebody might some day do something I don't think gets them protection."

Australia 'playing its part' in Afghan surge

On the job: Australian forces will again be involved in supporting Operation Mushtarak

Defence Minister John Faulkner told ABC News that Australian troops will be involved in the next phase of a major operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Operation Mushtarak is part of US General Stanley McChrystal's new strategy to reverse the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan.

Senator Faulkner says Australian troops have already played a significant role in operations throughout central Helmand province.

He says the focus is now turning to the Taliban insurgency around Kandahar.

"I expect Australian forces will again be involved in supporting General McChrystal's strategy," he said.

"Australia will play its part, which could again see ADF elements and their ANA (Afghan National Army) partners supporting the fight."

Senator Faulkner has appointed two senior Defence Force officers to key roles relating to the war in Afghanistan.

Major-General Brian Dawson will serve as Australia's military representative to NATO, while Major-General Ash Power will become a senior military adviser to the Afghan defence minister.

Senator Faulkner announced the appointments during a speech updating Parliament on the situation in Afghanistan.

He says a new strategy for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is paying dividends.

"The early gains of Operation Mushtarak highlight the value of ISAF's revised strategy," he said.

"As Admiral Mullen said in New York only a few days ago, 'the objective is not the enemy's defeat but the people's success'."

Operation Moshtarak: finally working together?

Operation Moshtarak is different to other operations in the Afghan war because of the role taken by Afghan troops, writes former Paratrooper and video journalist Josh Fortune.

Josh Fortune is a former paratrooper who is now working for NATOchannel.tv as a video journalist. He has been in Afghanistan since April 2008.

"They look awfully like UFOs," I thought, looking up at the six glowing lights in the sky, which were hanging ominously above us several kilometers away like some sort of silent sentinels.

They were the next wave of Canadian and British Chinook helicopters, preparing to swoop down and deliver their load of Afghan and British soldiers into Northern Nad Ali to mark the start of Operation Moshtarak – which means "together" in Dari, one of the primary languages spoken in Afghanistan.

Moshtarak was supposed to herald the first truly joint operation where Afghan and ISAF forces would live, work, and fight alongside each other in clearing out the Taliban and bringing security to parts of central Helmand.

I must admit that prior to the mission I was sceptical. I had been involved in the heli-borne air assault on Operation Khanjar last summer, where 4,000 Marines were dropped into parts of Southern Helmand. That operation was supposed to be joint as well.

However, it rapidly became clear to me that in the area I was in the only Afghan presence was a couple of token border police. They had very little role in the proceedings and only ever seemed to hinder the Marines as opposed to helping them.

After two years over here – and many operations in Helmand - my cynical edge seemed intent on telling me that Moshtarak would be more of the same, that the Afghan forces would have little effect, and that ISAF would be doing all the work with the Afghan soldiers unwillingly riding the coat tails of their coalition counterparts.

The eerie lights in the sky wheeled into the Camp Bastion helipad, and the Estonian and Afghan soldiers I was embedded with began to make their way to their assigned Chinook.

As we ran towards the overwhelming heat and noise of the Chinook, I struggled to think of any time in the past that I had heard of Afghan and ISAF forces involved in an air assault together – I had certainly never seen anything like it, and I doubted that it had ever happened on such a large scale before.

The ride to our LZ (or Landing Zone) was a brief one, and after six or seven minutes of staring into the dimly lit face of the Afghan soldier sitting opposite me, an Estonian soldier pounded my shoulder and bellowed "ONE MINUTE" in my ear.

I put my thumb up and duly passed the message on down the line. The Chinook touched down, and we all bundled out – into thick, wet mud.

For the full article click here for Channel 4

Canadians to be ‘tip of the spear' in Kandahar

The Globe and Mail, World News


By late spring or early summer, Canada will be at “the tip of the spear” of NATO's efforts in Afghanistan, leading a massive push in Kandahar province on the scale of this month's attacks in nearby Helmand, a top coalition soldier says.

Canadian Brigadier-General Craig King, the coalition's director of future plans in Afghanistan's volatile south, said allied forces and government agencies are preparing for an attack that will take place in the coming months, and draw largely from the playbook of this month's assault on Marjah and Nad Ali in Helmand in a bid to push the Taliban from restive pockets in Kandahar province.

“I think we need to be prepared that there's going to be an increase in activity in and around Kandahar. The Canadians are going to be very actively engaged in that, just as the marines and the British are right now in central Helmand,” said Gen. King, himself a Canadian.

“We are going to be, come the summer, the tip of the spear for Afghanistan here. [Fighting] is going to shift to Kandahar, and the Canadians are going to be, along with our American allies, right at the forefront of that spear.”

Gen. King's comments come as Kandahar's governor, Tooryalai Wesa, met Tuesday in Kabul with government and military leaders about the Helmand push, dubbed Operation Moshtarak. Mr. Wesa is seeking assurances that the coalition will correct its Helmand “mistakes [and] misinterpretations,” referring to the 15 civilians that have been reportedly killed since Moshtarak launched Saturday.

“Hopefully, this will not happen [in Kandahar] like it happened in Helmand,” he said. “Hopefully, the casualties will be minimized. The lessons we're learning from Helmand will be very useful for us.”

The International Security Assistance Force took a civilian-first approach to Operation Moshtarak, dropping leaflets warning of a coming fight and scheduling shuras , or tribal gatherings, to build trust in the community – all before a shot was fired. When soldiers did arrive, half were from the Afghan National Army.

That strategy isn't without its flaws. Coalition forces are being slowed in Marjah by a vast network of makeshift bombs, planted during the weeks of warning. Nevertheless, Gen. King said a Kandahar offensive will likely follow the same publicity strategy, to build trust and urge civilians and Taliban alike to leave.

ISAF will again face the ugly task of fighting Taliban amid a civilian population. In Marjah, coalition soldiers have complained that Taliban fighters are taking shelter among civilians, preventing coalition soldiers from firing at them.

UK troops lead major NATO Afghan assault

Al Arabiya News Channel Camp Bastion, AFGHANISTAN (Reuters)


British troops have launched helicopter advances in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province to prepare the battlefield for a major NATO operation, the British military said on Friday.

The British operations are on the outskirts of Marjah, a warren of desert canals held by the Taliban, which U.S. Marines say they intend to seize soon in what will be one of the biggest assaults of the eight-year-old war.

British and Afghan troops were carrying out "shaping operations" in Helmand's Nad Ali district as part of an initial phase of Operation Moshtarak, or "together," a large assault which will seize the entire district, the British military said.

Nad Ali includes Marjah, which the U.S. Marines describe as the last major Taliban-held bastion in the south of the province, Afghanistan's most violent region, which produces most of the country's illegal opium crop that helps fund the insurgency.

The assault on Marjah itself will be the first operation to employ some of the 30,000 new reinforcements sent by U.S. President Barack Obama at the end of last year.

NATO commanders say they intend to turn the tide this year on an insurgency that has grown far stronger and more deadly in recent years. Obama has said he plans to begin drawing down forces in mid-2011.

British troops have been conducting shaping operations for a few weeks in the area, and launched fresh helicopter and ground advances in the past 36 hours, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said in a statement.

"The operations which have been taking place in the British area of Nad Ali District over the last 36 hours have been part of that same series of 'shaping operations', all part of Op (operation) Moshtarak," he said.

"They have been commanded jointly by Afghan and British commanders and have involved insertions by helicopter and ground of Afghan and British troops to locations to the west of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah," he said.

Birth of Afghan army is British exit strategy

In the mountainous outskirts of the Afghan capital, on a vast exercise area littered with rusting Soviet-era tanks and derelict buildings, British infantry commander Lieutenant Colonel Nick Ilic explains why training the Afghan National Army is crucial to British success in Afghanistan:

“It is absolutely fundamental we get this right. This is our exit strategy. The guys down south in Helmand and elsewhere are holding the line, creating a safe environment for us to train the Afghan National Army (ANA) to the right standard and quality so they can take on the fight when they’re ready.”

British, American and other NATO soldiers are working together to train and mentor thousands of ANA soldiers each month at the flagship Military Training Centre, Kabul (KMTC).

Lt Col Ilic, 41, a father of six from Warminster in Wiltshire is the UK Leadership Training Team’s (LTT’s) Commanding Officer, based at Camp Alamo, near KMTC. He heads up a team of 64 British military personnel charged with overseeing the ANA’s Officer and Senior Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO) training. The training of junior ANA soldiers is run by US military teams.

In the past ANA training was delivered by coalition forces but now, Lt Col Ilic explains, it is delivered by the ANA themselves:

“My team advises, mentors and trains the ANA instructors who run the training. The aim is for Afghans to lead the training of other Afghans; when required to do so we step in an assist in the training ourselves. The mentors are here to ensure that the training is carried out safely and that standards are kept high.”

“Witnessing the birth of this new Afghan army is a humbling experience. There is no doubting the enthusiasm of the troops. They’re all determined to make a better Afghanistan for themselves and their families. The fact they are joining in their droves illustrates there’s a new found confidence in Afghanistan.”

The ANA trainee soldiers at KMTC are recruited from all over Afghanistan. They pass through an eight week training package of basic infantry and core military skills essential for fighting the Taliban - such as weapon handling, live firing, section attacks and compound clearances – before graduating and deploying to the various Provinces in ethnically mixed teams.

Some deploy to live and fight alongside British soldiers in Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams (OMLTs) in Helmand Province’s green zone, where fierce fighting with insurgents takes place. Others deploy to work alongside units like the 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh who are partnered with ANA soldiers and over the course of the next three months numbers will grow until an entire Kandak (the equivalent to a British battalion) will live and fight alongside the Welsh soldiers.

The mentoring staff at Alamo are responsible for ensuring the ANA is trained to a strength of 134,000 by the end of October 2010. Initially, the Army will be an infantry centric force able to fight insurgents and hold the ground until the national force reaches full operational capability – with its own logistic and support elements – of 240,000 by 2013.

Lt Col Ilic is under no illusions about the size of the task ahead, but is infectiously optimistic about the prospect of success:

“To reach that target we need to train 5200 soldiers, officers and NCOs every month and we’ve already trained 100,000 – that’s a similar number to the total size of the British Army.”

“At the moment recruiting is high because the harvests are in and people are looking for other employment. The challenge is to maintain that momentum in spring and summer but we’re confident we’ll be able to achieve that.”

Recruitment has undoubtedly been assisted by the doubling of salaries. A Warrior fighting in Helmand (equivalent rank to a British Private soldier) now receives $240 per month - an attractive prospect when over half the Afghan population lives below the poverty line. In a move to prevent corruption, the money is paid into soldiers’ own private bank accounts rather than as cash.

“Managing the training is a huge challenge and resources are probably the biggest challenge. We are bulging at the seams here at KMTC. To cope, we are expanding the training bases so that training Afghans can take place in each of the regional core areas of Gardez, Herat, Kandahar and Maz i Sharif.”

Lt Col Ilic refutes allegations that the quantity of ANA soldiers being trained is trumping quality:

“The training at KMTC is only the first leg in a relay race. After graduating, the soldiers undertake selection and training for specialist roles followed by pre-deployment training and then partnering on the front line by embedded training and mentoring teams.”

“KMTC is therefore the start of a long training cycle that each ANA soldier must undertake to ensure an army of the right quality and size is developed to guarantee the long term stability and future of Afghanistan.”

Literacy is also a key area that the British team are addressing. Every recruit receives a two week literacy course when they join. At each and every stage of training after that, such as the NCO courses, they undertake a further week’s literacy training. This is invaluable as reading and writing are skills for life and the soldiers are very aware of the value this brings them.

The British have been training and mentoring their Afghan counterparts since 2006 and are constantly developing the training programmes to make sure it is efficient and relevant to the current operational environment. Drill, for example, has been reduced to make room for more weapons training.

From June, different specialist schools will begin to be established with the British leading on the delivery of Combat Arms skills such as infantry and artillery training.

“We are not trying to create a British Army - ours has been hundreds of years in the making. What the ANA needs to be able to do is to take on and defeat the Taliban. They can achieve that because they are better trained, better equipped and better motivated with a long term future. In time, quantity and quality will tell.”

Lt Col Ilic has been personally mentoring Colonel Abdul Sabor, the ANA Non-Commissioned Officers’ Academy Commander. Col Sabor says the relationship between the mentors and the ANA is good:

“We have one aim, one enemy. The ANA is improving all the time and after four or five years, with the help of coalition forces, there’ll be no Al Qaida or Taliban in Afghanistan.”

Pictures: Lt Sally Armstrong, RN

Annual death toll for coalition forces in Afghanistan tops 500 for first time

The annual death toll of international troops in Afghanistan has surpassed 500 for the first time.

The total last year was 502, compared with 286 in 2008.

The number of United States military deaths doubled. As of 30 December, 304 had been killed, up from 151 in 2008. The count does not include the eight US civilians killed by a suicide bomber
on Wednesday.

The figures, based on daily reports from Nato's International Security Assistance Force, found that 129 of the US fatalities in 2009 – or more than 40 per cent – had been caused by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. The home-made bombs are hidden at the roadside or near buildings and detonated by remote control or pressure plates.

Among other forces, Britain took the worst blow in 2009, with 107 deaths, while Canada lost 32, including the four who died on Wednesday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. Other countries in the military coalition lost a total of 59 service members.

American military officials acknowledge that the insurgency has momentum and that more troops on the battlefield means the death toll is likely to remain high in the near term. Another 30,000 reinforcements are due in coming months, raising the American presence in Afghanistan to 100,000.

In contrast, American deaths in Iraq dropped by half as troops largely remained on bases and the US prepared to withdraw by the end of 2011. Some 152 US service personnel died, down from 314 a year earlier.

Like laying tracks in front of a train... the race to forge new Afghan army

Robert Fox, Defence Correspondent - The Evening Standard (click the headline for the ES website)

On a lunar landscape of hardened mud and rock littered with the hulks of Russian tanks, the new Afghan army is being shaped, and with it the future of the Afghan state and its deadly war with the Taliban insurgency.

Across these ranges, barrack huts and drill squares, some 12,000 young Afghan soldiers and their mentors train every month. The rawest recruits undergo "warrior" training for eight weeks before being sent to their units; young officers train for 25 weeks.

"It's a bit of roller-coaster, trying to meet the deadline of 134,000 trained soldiers by next October," said Brigadier Simon Levey, the British officer in charge of international assistance and mentoring to the Afghan forces. "Sometimes it feels like laying down the rail track just in front of the train."

Lieutenant Colonel Nik Ilic, the British officer in charge of NCO mentoring and training, said: "The difference is that we started training with British officers and Gurkhas in English. Now the Afghan officers and NCOs train them in Dari and we are there to mentor." Decorated for gallantry on the front line as an interpreter in the Bosnian war, Ilic says his present job is about the best he has had in his Army career.

"It's a fantastic job, a real privilege, and I would like to stay longer than my six-month tour. The real test is how many well-trained NCOs and soldiers we can get into the field. My team of 63 does wonders - but just imagine what we could achieve if we had 500 mentors here," he said.

Within three years the Afghan government aims to train an army of more than 300,000. It will be a tall order given the major problems of illiteracy - only 30 per cent of those selected for NCO training can read and write, and most training has to be done by demonstration and purely visual story boards.

Across the barren landscape of the training ground, the soldiers crawl like ants. G Company of the Officer Training Course is preparing for a full exercise using live ammunition, which will take up the final week of training. Many will be in battle alongside the British and Americans in Helmand only a few weeks from now. A key element of the McChrystal strategy for Afghanistan, endorsed by President Obama with extra funds and US troop reinforcements this week, is the concept of "embedded partnering". British and American units will feed, sleep, train and fight alongside companies of Afghan army soldiers.

Early next year the international mission in Afghanistan is likely to be in its decisive offensive. It will be a decisive blooding, too, for many of the young recruits and trainee officers and NCOs at Gharib Gahr. "The training here is very good, and getting better. I just wish we could train on heavier weapons like mortars and SPG-9 recoilless guns," said Colonel Abdul Sabor, who fought against Russian occupation.

The future officers of G Company say they are prepared for the fight ahead. Taj Mohammed, 22, the platoon commander, said: "I want to help my country through the army." His comrade in arms Enyatullah added: "My father was in the army for 35 years. He is very proud that I am here, and so am I." Pashin Arbela, 22, who is married with two children, said: "I joined to make my country a better place for my family."

The army has had problems with absenteeism and corruption. "This has now improved, and the numbers going Awol and failing courses have fallen dramatically," said Colonel Ilic. "It's gone from 40 per cent to about five - which is better than infantry training at Catterick, which has had a failure and drop-out rate as high as 40per cent."

43 nations in ISAF

ISAF - International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is a very broad international commitment made up of a coalition of 43 nations, with every member operating under a UN mandate.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is not there to fight the Afghans, it is there to fight alongside them against insurgents who are rejected by most people in the country. Afghan forces have paid a heavy price in casualties and have borne a substantial part of the fighting.

Who else is there apart from UK forces in the 71,000 ISAF?

There are 35,000 US; 4,365 Germans; over 3,000 from France; 2,800 Canadians; 2,800 Italians; over 2,000 Dutch; 1,500 Australians; and nearly 2,000 Poles.

UK forces in Helmand work alongside 690 Danes and 150 Estonians.

Countries across the world from Norway to New Zealand make a contribution.

There are troops from Muslim nations - Turkey, Albania, the UAE, Jordan and Bosnia.

Many contributors have increased their forces over the last few months - for example Germany, the Netherlands and Australia by about 300 each. New Zealand has almost doubled its commitment from 160 to 300. Click here for a full list.

Taliban bomb making team destroyed as they planted an IED

ISAF troops in Helmand have destroyed a bomb-making team as they attempted to plant an IED on a main road to the east of the area held by British troops following Operation Panther’s Claw.

In the early hours of this morning American Apache helicopters working for the Danish Battlegroup were patrolling close to Highway one, which runs out of Gereskh to the north of Babiji when they spotted three insurgents in the process of digging a device into the ground. The Apaches opened fire killing two of the insurgents and preventing them from fully laying the death trap.

Specialist British counter-IED teams were tasked to accompany the American-mentored Afghan National Army Highway patrol as they immediately entered the area on foot to make the device safe and to sweep across the surrounding area looking for signs of enemy activity.

One of the insurgents, who is thought to have survived the attack, had run to a nearby mud-walled compound. As British, Afghan and US Forces followed in hot pursuit, they discovered a cache of IED making-equipment inside a warren of rooms in the compound.

Amongst the haul were six pre-prepared IEDs, three 20-litre cans containing homemade explosives, six mortar rounds packed and prepared to be used as IEDs, hand grenades and an AK47.

The strike is a significant success along a highway which intersects the Babaji Road, a key route through the territory recently captured and held by British troops during Operation Panther’s Claw. Since April this year, Highway One has been the scene of 49 IED finds; a haul that could have resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries.

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wenham, Spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: “Highway One is a main arterial route through Helmand that is used extensively by the local population and security forces alike. The deadly devices that the insurgents intended to plant would almost certainly have killed or maimed innocent civilians or members of coalition forces.

“This morning’s operation was a truly multi-national effort and illustrates how NATO nations are working together at the tactical level, alongside the increasingly capable Afghan Forces, to provide security and ultimately stability for the local population.”

Taliban uses 'human shields' in army battle - Irish Independent

By Isambard Wilkinson and Ashfaq Yusufzai

The Taliban has begun holding civilians as "human shields" as its battle with the Pakistani military over the control of the Swat valley intensifies.

Pakistani paramilitary are maintaining a position on a high post in the troubled area of Pakistan's Lower Dir district.

Militants have erected roadblocks in the areas where soldiers launched an offensive earlier this week after a peace deal unravelled. Thousands of women and children were yesterday waiting on the roadsides near Swat's main town, Mingora, to migrate to safer places and the escape the military operations.

Khushhal Khan, senior government official in Swat, said: "The Taliban are using the people as shields. The Taliban aren't allowing people to go through the checkpoints in Kanju and the surrounding areas."

Ayaz Khan, a 39-year-old from the Kanju area of Swat, said he loaded his family into his car but that rocks, boulders and tree trunks had been laid across the roads, forcing him to turn back.
"I am helpless, frustrated and worried for my family," he said. He appealed to the authorities to clear the barriers and let people move to safety.

Hostage
The Taliban employed the same tactic in the neighbouring district of Buner, which militants from Swat overran last month. They reportedly kept 2,000 villagers hostage to act as human shields against military operations.

The military has relied heavily on aircraft attacks and mortar and the number of civilian casualties is already high. Yesterday 36 civilians were officially recognised as having been killed in the crossfire.

In the past three days more than 40,000 people have fled from Swat, in the North West Frontier Province.

The provincial government expects another half million people to become refugees because of the fighting.

More than 500,000 people have already been 'internally displaced' in the province due to fighting over the past year.

In Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, a suicide bomber on a motorbike struck a foreign convoy yesterday, killing 12 civilians and wounding 30 people, a spokesman said.

Dawood Ahmadi, spokesman for the governor of Helmand Province, said the attack took place in the town of Gereshk, located on a major highway.

He could not say if any foreign troops from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were hurt or killed.

Violence has been rising sharply in recent years as an insurgency gathers strength in southern and eastern Afghanistan, a trend the US hopes to stem with a huge surge in troop numbers this year.

British troops seize weapons stash just days after arriving in Afghanistan - Daily Mail

British soldiers captured a haul of deadly weapons just days after arriving in war-ravaged southern Afghanistan.

Troops from the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland, led a helicopter swoop on a supply route used by the Afghan resistance.

The soldiers from the Inverness-based battalion arrived in Afghanistan at the end of last month and officially became the regional battle group for the south of the country on Friday.

About 200 soldiers set off on a mission just 24 hours later, deploying at dawn on Saturday into Taliban heartland on a gruelling 36-hour operation.

Soldiers from Alpha (Grenadier) Company dropped from helicopters on to a known enemy supply route - and uncovered a stash of lethal explosives.

This included anti-personnel mines, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, which are the weapons fuelling an insurgency gripping Helmand province and the surrounding areas.

British troops have faced some of their fiercest fighting for years in southern Afghanistan.

The captured weapons were destroyed in a controlled explosion.

Around 30 Afghan National Army soldiers were also involved in the operation, as well as a small number of Canadian and US personnel.

Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Cartwright, commanding officer of the Black Watch, hailed the 'positive result' of the operation.

He said: 'The fact that Alpha Company deployed on operations so soon after their arrival in theatre demonstrates their flexibility and high level of preparation.

'It's pleasing to have had such a positive result.'

Major Matt Munro, commanding officer of Alpha Company, said: 'There is no doubt that our first deployment proved the excellent training that we have been through together.

'The use of helicopters gave us the initiative which we maintained throughout.'

The Black Watch battalion has taken over as the regional battle group from Plymouth-based 42 Commando Royal Marines.

It will support a range of operations across southern Afghanistan and is part of the UK's contribution to Nato's International Security Assistance Force.

Poland sending more troops to Afghanistan

Poland's defense minister said a fresh contingent of troops will raise the number of his country's soldiers in Afghanistan to 2,000.

Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said Polish troops were in service of NATO's most important mission -- to stablilize Afghanistan and the surrounding region, Polish Radio said Friday.

Poland is also dispatching two helicopters and a transport plane to Afghanistan.

At a departure ceremony of a paratrooper battalion from the southeastern town of Krakow, Klich told the troops their task included providing safety of civilians in Afghanistan.

The rise of the troops number from 1,600 to 2,000 is the Polish government's strategic move to assist the international mission, along with $9 million allocated to help lessening poverty of civilians in the region.

Poland to boost Afghan troops by 20 percent

Poland will boost its military deployment to Afghanistan by 20 percent to help secure elections in August and combat deteriorating security, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said Wednesday.

Kaczynski was in Kabul on an unannounced visit to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and some of the 1,600 Polish troops serving in the NATO-led force that is helping to fight an insurgency waged by Al-Qaeda-linked extremists.

"We are increasing our troops by 20 percent, especially direct combat troops," he told a joint news conference with Karzai in remarks translated from Polish. "I'll sign that strategy after I return."

Poland, a member of NATO, said last month it planned to send 400 more troops to Afghanistan by mid-April, partly to help secure the August presidential election, but the decision was awaiting a final go-ahead from the president.

Kaczynski's announcement Wednesday of a 20 percent boost in numbers would mean an extra 320 soldiers.

Kaczynski said the troops were also necessary because of "deteriorating" security in the eastern province of Ghazni, where Polish soldiers are working with their US counterparts.

The president was due in Ghazni after talks with Karzai on a one-day trip to Afghanistan, his first to the strife-torn nation.

His visit, days after a NATO summit recommitted itself to helping Afghanistan, came as NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced that one of its soldiers was killed in the south.

ISAF did not release the nationality of the troop who died in the south, becoming the fifth to be killed in action in the past week.

In another insurgency-linked incident, a roadside bomb blew up on the outskirts of the southern city of Kandahar Wednesday, striking two civilian vehicles and wounding six people, a provincial official said.

Kaczynski echoed statements by other NATO leaders at the summit, saying Afghanistan could not again be allowed to become a base for Al-Qaeda as it had been under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.

"We are with those countries who are determined to make sure that peace and security stability prevails in Afghanistan," he said.

Kaczynski was the second European head of state to visit this week after German Chancellor Angela Merkel toured Monday.

NATO commands 58,000 troops from 42 countries in the alliance's most ambitious military mission, which involves beating back Taliban and other insurgents while helping the corruption-plagued government take control.

The alliance's ISAF operates alongside a US-led coalition and Afghan forces in a massive security operation that has been unable to tame the insurgency, which reached new heights last year.

Poland's boost in troop numbers will make it one of the lead contributors to ISAF alongside the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy.

Washington has around 38,000 troops in Afghanistan and has long urged NATO allies to boost their deployments to turn around a deteriorating situation.

President Barack Obama has pledged 17,000 more troops for the main battlefields in the south where several districts are out of government control.

He has also announced about 4,000 military trainers as part of US-led efforts to build up the Afghan forces so they can take over security duties from their international counterparts.

The reinforcements are part of a sweeping strategy unveiled by Obama last month to give impetus in the flagging war in Afghanistan more than seven years after the ouster of the Taliban.

The US plan also focuses on eliminating Al-Qaeda bases across the border in Pakistan, which support fighters in Afghanistan, and on ramping up civilian reconstruction efforts.