Afghanistan forces to stay separate, but could have single commander: NATO

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) Feb 05, 2004
NATO will not merge its Afghanistan operation with a US-led force hunting al-Qaeda and the former Taliban regime in the country, but the two could be led by a single commander, NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday.

"There could be one military commander with two hats to ensure synergy," de Hoop Scheffer told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.

NATO has about 6,100 soldiers deployed in the Afghan International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), with most in Kabul and about 200 in the northern city of Kunduz. Some 70 of them are from the United States.

Meanwhile a 12,000-strong US-led force of mostly American troops, separate from the NATO-led peacekeepers, is hunting remnants of the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper said on Wednesday that plans were afoot to bring those troops -- Operation Enduring Freedom -- under NATO control.

This is an option which the United States signalled at a December meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

However a NATO spokeswoman said no action was imminent on this front.

"At some point" the Alliance will discuss possible synergies between ISAF and Operation Enduring Freedom, she told AFP Wednesday.

"But there is no question of talking about a merger between the two forces."

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