General Stanley McChrystal told the newspaper in an interview the militant group was moving beyond its traditional strongholds in southern Afghanistan to threaten formerly stable areas in the north and west.

The militants are mounting sophisticated attacks that combine roadside bombs with ambushes by small teams of heavily armed militants, causing significant numbers of US fatalities, the general said, according to the report.

"It's a very aggressive enemy right now," McChrystal is quoted by the Journal as saying in his office in a fortified NATO compound in Kabul. "We've got to stop their momentum, stop their initiative. It's hard work."

The commander said the troop shifts are designed to better protect Afghan civilians from rising levels of Taliban violence and intimidation.

The coming redeployments are the clearest manifestation to date of McChrystal's strategy for Afghanistan, which puts a premium on safeguarding the Afghan population rather than hunting down militants, the paper said.

The administration of President Barack Obama is in the midst of an Afghan buildup that will push US troop levels in the country to a record 68,000 by year end.

Some US military officials believe the Taliban have taken advantage of the US offensive in the northern Helmand province to infiltrate the southern city of Kandahar and set up shadow local governments and courts throughout the city, The Journal said.

McChrystal said he planned to shift more US troops to Kandahar to bolster the Canadian forces that currently have primary security responsibility for the region, the paper reported.

"It's important and so we're going to do whatever we got to do to ensure that Kandahar is secure," The Journal quotes the general assaying. "With the arrival of the new US forces we'll have the ability to put some more combat power in the area."

McChrystal also said he would direct a "very significant" expansion of the Afghan army and national police, which would double in size under the plans being finalized by senior US military officers, according to the report.

earlier related report
Polish soldier missing, five Afghans killed in attack
Afghan authorities said an insurgent attack on a military convoy Monday had killed at least five Afghan security personnel while the Polish army said one of its soldiers was missing.

The attack in the central province of Ghazni comes amid a spike in insurgent violence that authorities fear could stop Afghans from casting their ballots in August 20 presidential and provincial council elections.

Afghan police had said Polish soldiers were among the casualties but this was not confirmed by international authorities until a Polish army spokesman said in Warsaw one of the country's soldiers was missing and four were injured.

"The lives of the four Polish soldiers injured in the exchange of fire are not in danger," Miroslaw Ochyla told AFP, adding that a search operation had been launched for the missing troop.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under which about 2,000 Polish soldiers serve would not comment, saying it was still investigating.

A US soldier was captured by Taliban in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.

Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP that three Afghan army soldiers and two policemen were killed in the Ghazni attack.

A senior provincial police official, who could not be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, issued a higher toll of six soldiers and five policemen killed. He said Polish troops had also suffered casualties.

ISAF draws together around 64,500 soldiers from more than 40 nations. More than 250 Western troops have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, most of them in attacks.

A suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy of Belgian troops in the northern province of Kunduz earlier Monday, causing some damage but no casualties, the NATO force said.

The insurgents have increased attacks on government and foreign forces' targets in recent months, raising concerns for the security for presidential and provincial council elections due on August 20.

Poland, a former communist country turned staunch ally of Washington, joined NATO in 1999. Warsaw first sent troops to Afghanistan in 2002 after the US-led overthrow of the hardline Islamist Taliban regime there.

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