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Obama's new Afghan plan to target al Qaeda havens

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-27 23:13

Disrupt and destroy

Taliban commander Mullah Hayat Khan scoffed at the US plan.

"Sending more troops will have no impact on the activities of the Taliban," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location. The strategy will have a unified military goal -- to disrupt, dismantle and eventually destroy al Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan and prevent it from establishing safe havens in Afghanistan.

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The officials said al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, were believed to be in an unknown location in Pakistan plotting fresh attacks on the United States and its allies.

US-led forces invaded Afghanistan after al Qaeda launched the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Initial descriptions of the strategy left many questions about Pakistan unanswered.

Many experts believe the nuclear-armed country's instability and its al Qaeda havens present a far greater threat to US national security than Afghanistan.

US drone attacks on suspected hideouts in tribal areas of the country began during the Bush administration and have continued under the new president, provoking anger in Pakistan.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani security and political analyst, said drone attacks would continue but a strain would stay in relations between the United States and Pakistan.

"The West considers Pakistan the main problem but the Pakistani government and non-official circles perceive themselves as innocent victims," he said.

As part of a new diplomatic effort, the United States will engage India, Russia, China and Iran. Obama's special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, will hold bilateral meetings with Afghanistan and Pakistan every six to eight weeks.

Washington plans to expand the size of the Afghan army from about 80,000 to 134,000 and the police force from 78,000 to about 82,000. The US officials said further increases were possible.

"It is much cheaper in the long run to train Afghans to fight this war than it is to send Americans half way around the globe," one official said.

In the short term, however, the current $2 billion-a-month cost of US military operations in Afghanistan are projected to increase by 60 percent, another official said.

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