Kabul, Afghanistan – NATO will increase its force in Afghanistan to as many as 15,000 soldiers and will take on counterinsurgency operations as it expands its mission into southern Afghanistan over coming months, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday.
De Hoop Scheffer was in Afghanistan for several days with ambassadors from NATO member nations and the group’s military commander, Gen. James L. Jones, to discuss the next stage of expansion of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The assembled leaders were specifically discussing how to change the rules of engagement for the NATO force as it moves from being a peacekeeping operation in the country’s quieter areas to working with the American-led forces and taking more responsibility for the restive southern part of the country.
Eventually NATO will take over command of all forces in all sections of the country, and there was consensus within NATO to work on greater coordination between the two military operations in Afghanistan as the next step, de Hoop Scheffer said.
Some NATO members have expressed opposition to the idea of combining the NATO peacekeeping mission with the American-led force, which has prosecuted the war against terror since 2001.
American forces are likely to maintain a presence at Kandahar air base in the south and for the present will keep military command over the southeastern part of the country, along the border with Pakistan.
“NATO is going to expand the operation into the southern part of the country,” de Hoop Scheffer said at a news briefing with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. “Unfortunately, there is still the need for counterinsurgency. We hope that need will diminish.”
Until now, the 9,000-member NATO force, which was increased to 10,000 for the recent elections, has been operating as a stabilizing presence in Kabul and in the relatively peaceful northern and western parts of the country.