KABUL, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan on Monday to weigh new strategies to quell the insurgent violence that has escalated in recent years, despite increases in U.S. and NATO troop levels.
Under one initiative being considered, senior defense officials said, local tribesmen would be trained and armed to fight Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the Islamic militia’s stronghold. Attacks in that region have been particularly intense, and one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is “seeing early indicators that there may be some stepped-up activity by al-Qaeda.”
“One of the clear concerns that we all have is that the last two or three years there has been a continuing increase in the overall level of violence,” with attacks “highly focused” in southern Afghanistan, Gates told reporters Monday. “I’m not worried about a backslide as much as I am how we continue the momentum going forward.”
The tribal initiative would begin with a British pilot project in Helmand province and would, broadly speaking, be similar to a U.S. military drive in Iraq that has recruited thousands of local fighters — including tribes and former insurgents — to police their neighborhoods, the officials said.
The Washington Post
