2 February 2011 VOA News A top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday the war was still winnable, even if Pakistan does not take additional action in its key tribal areas.
General David Rodriguez told a Pentagon news conference he would like to see Pakistani forces do more along the border to destroy Afghan insurgent safe havens. He stressed, however, that even if they do not enter key tribal areas, such as North Waziristan, it will not change his efforts to defeat the Taliban inside Afghanistan.
U.S. officials have repeatedly called on Pakistan to take military action against known militant hideouts in North Waziristan, but Islamabad says its forces have been stretched thin.
Rodriguez also said his forces made good progress last year, and are taking advantage of the current winter lull in fighting to make it more difficult for the insurgents to launch a spring offensive.
He added the past year, with more international and Afghan forces and a better coordinated effort with civilian agencies, has brought expanded areas of security and improved the lives of ordinary Afghans.
Meantime, a new report from the Kabul-based Afghanistan Rights Monitor group issued Tuesday said 2010 was the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since the war began.
The group said at least 2,421 civilians were killed and more than 3,270 wounded last year. The report says insurgents were responsible for 63 percent of the total civilian deaths, while international forces were blamed for about 20 percent of the deaths. The rest were attributed mostly to Afghan forces.
The rights group criticized insurgent groups for deliberately targeting civilians, and U.S. and NATO forces for labeling nearly every war casualty as being a “suspected insurgent.”
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