Taliban Not Behind All Violence in Afghanistan, Says Nato Chief

The Taliban should not be blamed for all the violence in Afghanistan, which was also being perpetrated by al-Qaida remnants and criminals, Nato's top commander said yesterday.

"There is a tendency to characterise all of the violence in Afghanistan as the resurgence of the Taliban," said US General James Jones, the alliance's supreme allied commander Europe. "This is inaccurate. It doesn't capture the nature of the problem." He said the violence had other causes, including "the strong presence of the drug cartels which have their own infrastructure, their own export system, their own security system ..."

Addressing the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna, Gen Jones said: "I would caution that we should not make the Taliban 10 feet tall [bigger than they are]." The new weapons being used were available to "all of the actors, not just the Taliban", he said.

Military commanders believe a minority of fighters attacking British troops in Helmand province, and mainly Canadian troops in neighbouring Kandahar province, are hardcore Taliban. The majority, they suggest, are local people paid by the Taliban who offer significantly more - about £5 a day - than the money paid to recruits to the Afghan army.

Commanders are also concerned about what they call Taliban propaganda that troops are occupying the country and threatening local livelihoods by preparing to eradicate the opium poppy crop. They say Nato cannot easily counter this message when soldiers are battling the Taliban rather than winning "hearts and minds". Gen Jones urged the international community to tackle opium production, which provides more than half the country's income. Nato commanders do not want to get directly involved in poppy eradication: that is the job of civil agencies and the Afghan authorities, they say.

Meanwhile defence sources expressed optimism that the 1,000-strong reserve battalion requested by Nato commanders would be agreed by the time alliance defence ministers meet in Slovenia at the end of the month.