The outgoing American general in charge of Nato forces in Afghanistan for the past 15 months says the war against the Taleban is "under-resourced".

Gen Dan McNeill hands over command of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) to another American, Gen David McKierman, shortly.

Isaf currently has 53,000 troops from 40 countries. But Gen McNeill says more manpower and equipment is needed.

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Strong messages

Gen McNeill's reputation in Afghanistan has been for straight talking and keeping out of politics.

But he had two strong messages as he prepared to handover control of Isaf to Gen McKierman.

When he took over in February 2007 Isaf had 33,000 troops. Even though there are now 53,000 troops he says that is still not enough.

"This is an under-resourced war and it needs more manoeuvre units, it needs more flying machines, it needs more intelligence, surveillance and recognisance apparatus," Gen McNeill said. "I'm not just focused on the US sector, I'm talking about across the country ."

He suggested that if counter-insurgency guidelines were strictly followed, 400,000 troops would be needed in Afghanistan.

There have clearly been military inroads against the insurgency in the past 15 months.

A number of important Taleban commanders have been killed and the counter insurgency strategy has developed.

Gen McNeill highlighted the east of the country as an example of success. However there has been an increase of attacks in the area, which he blames on the situation in Pakistan.

Referring to the current peace talks between the Pakistani government and leading militants there he said "there appears to be a lack of pressure right now" which had a knock-on effect on Afghanistan.

"You also know we keep a measurement of what occurs and you know of a time when there has been dialogue or peace deals, the incidents (of attacks in Afghanistan) have gone up."

The new commander of Isaf, Gen David McKierman, oversaw the ground attack that toppled Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

He faces a challenging tour of duty with increasing attacks on troops on the 40 nations making up the Nato force.

(BBC)

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