By NNN-Bernama
Melbourne : Coalition forces in Afghanistan may be going backwards in their fight against Taliban extremists because of inadequate local military backup, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says.
Ahead of a likely rejig of Australia’s deployment in Afghanistan, Fitzgibbon expressed concern that Afghan military personnel trained by NATO forces had been unable to hold ground against a resurgent Taliban.
“Some very, very good gains have been made in Afghanistan,” he told ABC radio.
“But in recent months those gains have slowed markedly and, some might argue, we’re starting to go backwards.
“We’re having good success on the military front only to see those gains lost because of the inability of the Afghan national army to hold our gains. We need a much better marrying of our military and non-military efforts.”
Fitzgibbon said the federal government would shortly announce the outcome of a review of the make-up of Australia’s forces, numbering about 1,000, in Afghanistan.
He indicated Australia was likely to play a greater role in training local forces in the future.
“I’m very, very sure … that we will move to a larger focus on the training of the Afghan national army to bring them up to the critical mass required to allow them to hold the significant military gains we’ve made,” he said.
Fitzgibbon called on NATO countries to lift caveats on where their troops could operate, accusing them of shirking their responsibilities in the war on terror.
Australia , as a non-NATO country a long way from the conflict, was “punching above our weight” in Afghanistan, he said.
“We wouldn’t, of course, even consider increasing our troop numbers or our resources while ever underperforming NATO countries refuse to do more,” he said.
Fitzgibbon said he had been surprised on coming to government how little access Australia had to NATO’s military plans in Afghanistan.
But he was pleased to have been promised access to that information after meeting with NATO chiefs in Lithuania.