Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistan and Afghanistan are discussing a possible joint force to combat militants on both sides of their border near Pakistan’s tribal region, which has become a safe haven for al Qaeda and other groups, a senior Afghan official said on Monday.

Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters that such a force would include U.S. troops and address soaring insurgent violence that he said has stretched the capabilities of U.S., NATO and Afghan forces inside Afghanistan.

“We should have a combined joint task force of coalition, Afghans and Pakistanis to be able to operate on the both sides of the border,” Wardak said at the Pentagon during a visit to Washington to discuss a Kabul plan to nearly double the size of the Afghan army.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress recently that he had ordered a new U.S. military strategy for the region that would for the first time encompass Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Wardak said the Afghan government has discussed the task force with Pakistani officials within the past several weeks. “They say they’re looking at it,” he said.

Speaking two days after a truck-bomb attack on Islamabad’s Marriott hotel, Wardak said that given recent events in Pakistan “everyone should realize we have a common threat, a common enemy and a common objective to achieve.”

He noted that insurgent violence in Afghanistan rose three-fold from 2005 to 2007 and said: “2008 is going to be the highest among all.”

INSURGENCY EXPANSION

The core of the insurgency consists of 10,000 to 15,000 fighters in Afghanistan, he said, not including those who operated outside the country in areas such as Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, on the Afghan border.

“Now I think they’re operating geographically in more areas and more provinces than before, and I think they have stretched the capability of the combined forces of ISAF, the coalition and Afghans,” the defence minister said.

ISAF, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, totals about 47,000 troops including 13,000 U.S. forces. Another 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate under a separate U.S. command.

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have asked for three more combat brigades totaling around 10,000 troops. Washington, strapped by commitments in Iraq, plans to send one Army combat brigade and a smaller Marine force by February.

U.S. and Afghan officials blame the rising tide of attacks in Afghanistan partly on safe havens in Pakistan that they say recruit and train militants and help plan cross-border actions.

But there has been frustration in Washington over Pakistan’s slowness to act against militants on its soil.

U.S. commandos crossed the border into Pakistan on Sept. 3 to attack a suspected al Qaeda target that officials said was contributing to violence in Afghanistan. The operation raised an outcry from Pakistani officials who said women and children were among the 20 people killed.

“A terrorist does not recognize any boundaries,” Wardak said when asked about the raid. “We have to deal with the sanctuaries and the real hide-outs of the terrorists, wherever they are.”

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Tags: al qaeda, Army, Insurgency, Pak-Afghan border