Taliban failed to mount spring offensive, NATO says [View All]

Source: Reuters

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, June 14 (Reuters) - The Taliban failed to mount their long-threatened spring offensive in Afghanistan, and indications are the guerrillas may have trouble recruiting fighters after the harvest, a NATO commander said.

"The only spring offensive that has taken place this year is the one that NATO has conducted," British Brigadier John Lorimer, the one-star general who commands NATO's forces in Afghanistan's Helmand province, told Reuters.

The hot months are usually the peak fighting season in Afghanistan. The Taliban threatened -- and NATO's own generals predicted -- a likely upsurge in guerrilla attacks early this year as the snow melted.

But Lorimer, speaking in an interview overnight at his headquarters in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, said NATO operations over the winter appeared to have disrupted guerrilla supply chains, making it more difficult for them to mount the sort of large-scale attacks that were common last year.

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AFGHANISTAN: Humanitarian room for manoeuvre diminishing - ICRC

KABUL, 14 June 2007 (IRIN) - Delivering humanitarian aid and monitoring the situation of civilians in Afghanistan has become increasingly difficult, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told IRIN in Kabul.

"Up till late 2001 the ICRC had access to all conflict areas and was able to mediate in prisoner exchanges, the exchange of remains and the delivery of humanitarian aid," Reto Stocker, head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan, told IRIN.

"But now we do not have that access," Stocker said.

According to the ICRC, the hardening of views among the warring parties and the intensification of the conflict have reduced the space in which humanitarian workers can operate. Very little heed is being paid to civilian protection.

"There is a lack of will among different groups in the conflict to try to seek dialogue, and it has become very difficult to negotiate," Stocker added.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/f835e024b88f389dfa96d7f80a330675.htm