In an interview with the Canadian daily Globe and Mail, just before handing power to Dutch commander Major General Mart de Kruif, Lessard said better outreach to Afghan tribes and tribal elders "has to be explored."

Despite an upsurge of violence in the country by Taliban forces in recent months, Lessard downplayed the idea of a strengthened insurgency, instead describing the insurgents are "extremely, extremely resilient."

Lessard, replaced Saturday by de Kruif as head of the International Security Assistance Force in southern Afghanistan at a ceremony at the Kandahar Air Base, said an understanding of the role of tribal communities is key to success.

"The tribal dynamic here is a lot more complex than in Iraq," he told the daily.

"The authority of the central government here in Afghanistan is not as strong as in Iraq," he said, adding: "The tribes play an important, important role in the daily lives of Afghans."

"If you make a mistake and alienate some tribes, because some tribes feel disenfranchised, you can create more harm than good in this tribal outreach," he said.

Lessard said, however, that he was "very, very leery" about the tactic of arming tribes and counting on their support in NATO's push against insurgents.

"We have spent a lot of effort, a lot of money, resources, on developing the Afghan security forces: the army, the police, the border police," he said.

"When you arm a militia, you think that you're giving it a role for added security. They may think also they are empowering themselves and getting a greater status within the overall region in terms of the other tribes."

Earlier this week the US government indicated it is considering negotiations with "reconcilable" members of the Taliban, in the hope they would renounce violence and respect the Afghan constitution.

"We are clearly, as I said, under the strategic review, trying to see if our engagement with any reconcilable elements makes sense," a State Department official told reporters Tuesday.

There are a total of 60-70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan, fighting insurgents and training Afghan forces.

Insurgent attacks are at a record high this year and there are calls for more international troops to be sent to the shattered country.

earlier related report
Afghanistan negotiations 'very difficult': British PM
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday it would be "very difficult" for Afghanistan to negotiate directly with the Taliban while troops were still being killed there.

"I think the government (of President Hamid Karzai) wants to reach out and make for a more inclusive society," Brown told Al-Jazeera television, when asked about the possibility of negotiations.

"But I think at the same time when British and other troops are being murdered by Taliban forces... in guerilla warfare, I think it's very difficult indeed.

"I would hope that people will come to realise that Afghanistan's future lies in a political process and not a guerilla warfare."

Brown was speaking during a four-day tour of Gulf states which has so far taken in Saudi Arabia, where he met King Abdullah, and Qatar, where he is meeting the prime minister and emir.

Britain has around 8,000 troops in Afghanistan and 121 personnel have died while serving there since 2001.

Two British civilians died in Kabul last month -- David Giles, who worked for the DHL delivery company, and aid worker Gayle Williams.

Brown said in August during a visit to Kabul that Britain was "utterly resolute" in supporting Afghanistan as it fights a Taliban-led insurgency.

Saudi Arabia confirmed last month that it had been sponsoring talks between the Afghan government and representatives of the Taliban at the request of Karzai in a bid to restore stability but indicated further talks may be difficult.

earlier related report
Unpredictability vital in Afghanistan: French colonel
After four months in Afghanistan, French Colonel Jacques Aragones says he had learned an important lesson: to effectively do battle with the Taliban, one has to be unpredictable.

"We constantly change our plans, our patrol routes, our schedules, our stations, our support," says the commander of 700 French soldiers sent to Afghanistan's eastern province of Kapisa in June.

Aragones has learned his lesson the hard way.

Not far from here at Sarobi, the French military -- in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led force -- lost 10 soldiers in August when they were ambushed by dozens of Taliban fighters while on patrol.

At Kapisa's Forward Operating Base in Nijrab, a fortified camp about 60 kilometres (37 miles) northeast of Kabul, the patrol convoys head out at all hours of the day and night.

For the soldiers, the excursions are tough. They have to carry packs weighing 30 kilogrammes (66 pounds) -- and sometimes more -- in temperatures that are scorching in summer and icy in winter.

In the rocky mountains, French troops and Taliban play cat and mouse -- a game of life and death.

According to Aragones, the insurgents have "watched the French, the way they behave and their reactions."

Without identifying his regiment's US predecessors, the officer says the Taliban here have become used to an adversary that sticks to the main routes and close to their vehicles, and been rattled by the more pro-active French.

"We go and look for them on foot and deep in the valleys," he says.

The colonel says working in Kapisa is without a doubt a lot more difficult than in the Kabul region where French troops have been stationed since the end of 2001, when the Taliban regime was driven out in a US-led invasion.

An experienced soldier with Aragones' 8th Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment, who has served in the French military for more than 21 years and has completed 17 tours of duty, agrees.

"There is no comparison. This theatre is the most difficult, the most stressful of all those I have been to," says the sergeant who can only be identified in media reports by his first name, Laurent, under military rules.

"Contacts are frequent," he says, adding that just days ago he was involved in the most violent confrontation of his career.

Since arriving in Kapisa, these French reinforcements have experienced about 100 significant incidents including 40 involving combat, five bomb blasts and the discovery of arms and ammunition.

Fourteen French soldiers have been wounded, four of them seriously, while about a dozen suspected insurgents have been arrested. Rebel deaths were not revealed.

Faced by this kind of guerrilla fighter, which in times past was able to crush British and Soviet troops, the colonel proposes several adaptations.

The next group of soldiers should all have their own night vision equipment. The French also want their own reconnaissance drones.

Also on the Christmas list are "tele-operated" turrets on armoured vehicles, which will enable gunners inside to see via video the terrain outside and even shoot without having to be exposed.

The troops also need transport vehicles with bullet-proofed cabins for the logistics convoys that bring in supplies from the capital on a perilous three-hour route. These are supposed to arrive by January.

But for now the French have to do with the bare minimum.

An example: on three occasions, a company of 150 French soldiers has had to be lifted on double-rotor Chinook helicopters from the US military because the French army does not have a even a single large transport chopper.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News