http://english.aljazeera.net:80/NR/exeres/263B7876-121C-49E2-B129-56C7715DEC
1C.htm
Nato gains in Afghanistan at risk
Afghan forces may be unable to hold areas of Afghanistan captured by Nato
should Taliban fighters launch a new offensive, the commander of the
Nato-led force has said.
General Dan McNeill said on Friday that British troops serving in Nato may
have to launch new operations against the Taliban in Helmand province,
months after Nato took control.
"I think there is some chance of that because the Afghan national security
forces have not been as successful in holding as we would like them to be,"
McNeill, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf),
told the BBC.
"We are likely to have to do some of this work again."
In the past six months about 25 British soldiers have been killed in Helmand
province, where most of Britain's 7,000 troops are deployed.
Another 800 soldiers are due to join the British contingent in Isaf by the
end of the year.
Captors contacted
Also in Afghanistan, negotiators made contact on Friday with the captors of
four workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The men, two of whom are foreigners, were on a mission to free a German
kidnapped by the Taliban when they were seized on Wednesday in Wardak
province, about 50km from the capital, Kabul.
"The Red Cross office advised us not use any military action for the safety
of the kidnapped people and the issue must be solved via mediation through
tribal elders," Anayatullah Mangal, the governor of Sayed Abad district,
said.
"We are in contact with the kidnappers via tribal elders and influentials,"
Mangal said.
The Red Cross workers did not return to Kabul on Wednesday after their
mission in Wardak, where a 62-year-old German engineer and five Afghans were
captured 10 weeks ago.
The ICRC has played a role in securing the release of some Taliban hostages,
including 21 South Korean Christian aid workers captured in mid-July and
released in August.
Taliban denial
Besides the two Afghans, one of the men was from Myanmar and another from
Macedonia, the ICRC said, adding that the workers were expected to be freed
soon.
"We are in contact with all the involved parties," Graziella Leite Piccolo,
an ICRC spokesperson, said in Kabul.
An "armed group" was involved in the abduction, she said, without
elaborating.
The Taliban said on Friday that it was not involved in the disappearance of
the four Red Cross workers.
Yousuf Ahmadi, who identified himself as the Taliban's main spokesman, said:
"This is not our work. I cannot say anything at this stage [about] who might
have done it."
The Afghan government said on Thursday it had arrested Ahmadi, but a man who
sounded like Ahmadi later called the media to say he was still free.
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