Hay una entrevista del jefe de los SSII alemanes, el BND donde apunta varias cosas sobre la situación en Afganistán
Published: 23/05/2007 12:00 AM (UAE)
Taliban not gaining upper hand in Afghanistan, says Germany
Agencies
Berlin: Taliban fighters are not gaining ground in Afghanistan and have been suffering considerable losses, the head of Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency said yesterday.
"I don't see that the Taliban is gaining the upper hand in Afghanistan," BND head Ernst Uhrlau was quoted as saying in an interview with daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
'Relevant factor'
"There is no 'decisive year 2007'. The Taliban are incurring sustained losses. At the same time, the Taliban remain a relevant security factor in the region which must be taken seriously." The Taliban have stepped up attacks in recent weeks, as both sides in the conflict look for a decisive advantage this year.
Uhrlau warned that Germany could not afford to be complacent about terrorism just because it was not involved in Iraq. "You are wrong if you believe Germany is not under threat because we did not take part in the Iraq war. Our soldiers are fighting Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan."
Germany, home to western Europe's second-biggest Muslim population after France, is worried about growing radicalism among its youth. Uhrlau said he believed there could be a threat to Germany from Islamist fighters currently engaged in North Africa.
"There are indications that, in the past year and a half, Islamist fighters from North Africa have gone to Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of them came back. North Africa is near Europe," said Uhrlau.
He said he was reminded of the Al Qaida-inspired 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people. Last year, plotters tried to explode bombs in suitcases on two regional trains in western Germany but the devices failed to detonate.
One Lebanese man has confessed to planting a bomb and one suspect wanted in connection with the plot was killed in clashes with the Lebanese army in northern Lebanon on Monday.Three German soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb in northern Afghanistan on Sunday.
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier yesterday visited the northern Afghan town of Kunduz where the three soldiers were killed. A dozen Taliban rebels and a policeman were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan, police and a district official said yesterday.
Ten Taliban fighters were killed in an attack on a police post in the troubled southern province of Kandahar late on Monday, a district chief said. A policeman was also killed in the fighting in Zhari district which lasted nearly one hour, the official said. Separately Taliban-led insurgents attacked another police checkpost early yesterday in the eastern province of Paktia and two were killed, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said.
"Their bodies were recovered," the police commander said. The Taliban, ousted from power nearly six years ago, carry out almost daily attacks on government and international soldiers although they suffer most of the casualties from these attacks.
O sea, que alerta del cluster magrebí y la amenaza a Europa.
