Pakistan tells US that new Afghanistan strategy has exposed its borders to militants

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6928926.ece

Pakistan tells US that new Afghanistan strategy has exposed its borders to militants

Jeremy Page, Zahid Hussain and Tom Coghlan

Pakistan has complained to the United States that the strategy in Afghanistan is allowing militants to cross the border more easily, hampering its army’s campaign against Islamists, The Times has learnt.

Pakistani army commanders say that Nato’s recent withdrawal of troops from outposts near the border is undermining the “hammer and anvil” strategy the US has advocated since 2001, whereby militants face Nato and Pakistani troops acting on both sides of the border.

The new policy has impaired the Pakistani army’s offensive against Taleban and al-Qaeda militants in South Waziristan and other tribal areas by allowing some to seek refuge in Afghanistan and others to return to Pakistan to join the fight, they say.

Taleban and anti-Taleban sources on both sides of the border have told The Times that militants have been returning from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the last month to fight in South Waziristan, where 30,000 government troops have been fighting insurgents since last month.

Pakistani commanders are also warning that US plans to send more troops to Afghanistan could drive militants into the southwestern region of Baluchistan while the Pakistani army is preoccupied with the northwest.

They raised the concerns with James Jones, President Obama’s National Security Adviser, when he visited Islamabad this month, according to Pakistani officials and Western diplomats. The US wants Pakistan to target militants in South and North Waziristan who cross the border to attack Nato forces in Afghanistan.

But Pakistan has yet to comply, largely because of its concerns about the new strategy introduced by General Stanley McChrystal. Last month the commander of all Nato forces in Afghanistan pulled troops out of remote outposts as part of a new counter-insurgency doctrine focusing on population centres.

The International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) confirmed that US troops had withdrawn from six frontier outposts, four in Nuristan province and two in Paktika — bordering Waziristan.

A senior Isaf official admitted the timing was unfortunate, but said that there was no evidence of greater militant activity around the border. “The border outpost decision predated the South Waziristan operation,” he said. “If it shows that we allow fighters to move freely in either direction, we would want to stop that. It is an unfortunate conjunction and it is easy to draw the wrong conclusions.”

Isaf insisted that the issue would not affect co-operation between US, Pakistani and Afghan forces, who set up a joint command centre near the Khyber Pass last year and plan to establish five more. Pakistani military officials agreed that the timing was coincidental, but said that the withdrawal was nonetheless hampering their efforts.

Pakistan’s army attacked militants in the Swat Valley in May before turning to South Waziristan last month. Mullah Jan Mohammed, a Taleban commander in Paktika, told The Timesthat Pakistani and other foreign militants there had meanwhile been crossing back into Pakistan. “There used to be lots in our area, but since the South Waziristan operation began, they have all returned to Pakistan,” he said.

Gulfam Hussain, the leader of a Shia anti-Taleban militia in the Pakistani tribal area of Kurram, which borders North Waziristan, also said that militants had been returning to Waziristan from Afghanistan. “It seems they’re going back to fight the Pakistani army,” he said.

Pakistan has been criticised by US officials for not deploying enough troops on its side of the border. Officials in Islamabad are now concerned that an increase in US troops in southern Afghanistan could destabilise Baluchistan, which is already home to a million Afghan refugees and a decades-long separatist insurgency.

“The increase in number of US troops without a clear strategy will have a huge destabilising effect for the region,” said a senior Pakistani military official. “The influx of more refugees will be politically explosive.”