Taliban switching to roadside bomb tactics - NATO

By Mark John

MONS, Belgium (Reuters) - Taliban fighters in Afghanistan are turning to sophisticated roadside bombs as they revert to classic guerrilla tactics against NATO, the alliance's top operational commander said on Tuesday.

NATO Supreme Allied Commander John Craddock said the devices targeting NATO's 34,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan were not yet as deadly as those used by Iraqi militants, but were being steadily refined.

Taliban fighters are seen holding their weapons at a secret base in eastern Afghanistan in this February 3, 2007 file photo. Taliban fighters in Afghanistan are turning to sophisticated roadside bombs as they revert to classic guerrilla tactics against NATO, the alliance's top operational commander said on Tuesday. (REUTERS/Saeed Ali Achakzai)

Craddock, appointed in December, declined to back a forecast by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer that the insurgency would be largely quelled by 2009, and stepped up his calls on allies to provide more troops and resources.

Fighting is set to intensive in the next few months as winter snows melt, making movement easier.

"We have a growing problem with IEDs," Craddock told a news briefing at NATO military headquarters in southern Belgium, referring to the roadside bombs known as Improvised Explosive Devices which have also plagued the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

"They are becoming more sophisticated," he said, without specifying how many casualties they had caused.

Craddock said the move appeared to follow a decision by the Taliban to revert to guerrilla tactics after trying unsuccessfully to battle NATO troops head-on late last year.

"They suffered enormously. Rather than try to slug it out with ISAF, they are not going to do that now ... We have seen an increased use in asymmetric attacks," he said.

Taliban commanders have denied they suffered heavy losses.

Despite the trend identified by Craddock, NATO is not ruling out further direct clashes with Taliban forces. The alliance said on Tuesday British troops managed to secure a dam in southern Helmand province after days of fighting with local insurgents.

U.S.-led troops in Iraq have suffered major casualties from a new type of sophisticated roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) that can penetrate the armour of an Abrams tank. U.S. officials say they are Iranian-made.

The Taliban bombs are not as effective as those being deployed in Iraq and suicide bombs often kill only the bomber. But any indication they are getting more effective would be yet another source of concern to NATO.

GREATER RISK

The United States sees 2007 as a crunch year in alliance efforts to crush an insurgency which has got progressively worse since the Taliban were ousted for their role in sheltering the al Qaeda network which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

De Hoop Scheffer told a top-level security conference in Munich at the weekend: "In 2009, we should see Afghanistan on the road to peace with the back of resistance broken".

Asked whether the forecast had been based on advice provided by him, Craddock replied: "I've not talked about any dates".

NATO commanders have in the past forecast the imminent end of the conflict. But with more than 4,000 people killed in violence last year, 2005 was the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban Islamist government in 2001.

Craddock renewed appeals for NATO nations to plug troop shortfalls which he and his predecessor U.S. General James Jones have complained are slowing efforts to stabilise the country sufficiently for reconstruction to begin.

(Additional reporting by Robert Birsel)