Afghan Threat Played Down
The commander of NATO forces said yesterday that rising attacks in Afghanistan will test NATO troops as the alliance expands into volatile southern regions of the country this summer, but he stressed that al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels lack the ability to reignite a major insurgency. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, NATO’s supreme allied commander, played down an increase in violence more than four years after the U.S.-led military campaign ousted the Taliban from power in 2001. He said remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in pockets of the country cannot “restart an insurgency of any size and major scope.” Full Story