Politics key to southern Afghan operations: NATO

A senior NATO official said Tuesday a massive military operation against the Taliban in one of their major strongholds in coming months would involve less military action and more politics, AP reported.

Mark Sidwell, NATO's senior civilian representative for Afghanistan, said the push against insurgents in the southern province of Kandahar would focus on improving governance and thus winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans.

"The security operation will not be a major event the way they were in Marjah," Sidwell said, referring to a region in neighbouring Helmand province where about 15,000 NATO, US and Afghan troops have been conducting a major assault against the rebels since mid-February.

"It will be a series of individual rippling operations across Kandahar city and districts around it, led by the Afghan forces to improve security gradually step by step, not in a big bang," Sidwell said.

US troops have been leading operations in and around Kandahar city for months, as troop numbers have built up.

The US and NATO have 126,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting the insurgents. That number will peak at 150,000 by August, with most of the new arrivals to be deployed in Kandahar, military officials have said.

They hope to bring large swathes of Kandahar currently controlled by the Taliban under Afghan sovereignty before parliamentary elections in September.

Sidwell said an important part of the operation would be improving governance and justice at district level so people could turn to the regular justice system when they had grievances rather than informal Taliban courts.

Shuras, or council meetings of community leaders, are also an important part of the Kandahar operation -- dubbed Omeid, meaning "hope" in Dari -- he said, aimed at winning public support for the security operation.

Kandahar is the biggest stronghold of the Taliban insurgents and was the capital of their 1996-2001 regime before their overthrow in a US-led invasion.