Afghan peace force warns of "soft target" attacks
Thursday, 30-Oct-2003, 1:58 PM ET

KABUL, Oct 30 (Reuters) -- The commander of NATOs peace keeping force in Kabul said on Thursday Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas could launch attacks on "soft targets" akin to this weeks suicide bombing of the Red Cross in Baghdad.

Increased activity by remnants of the radical Islamic Taliban militia has brought urgent calls from the United Nations for NATO to expand its force beyond Kabul to provinces already troubled by unruly warlords and a rampant opium drug trade.

"The quality of the potential threat has intensified," General Goetz Glimeroth told reporters at one of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters.

"Threats are not only directed against the Afghan transitional authorities or an assistance force like ISAFbut what we call soft targets, and that means elements of the United Nations or even, as we unfortunately had to witness in Baghdad, against the International Red Cross."

A car bomb attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad on Monday killed 12 people, including two ICRC guards.

U.N. aid workers have suspended their work in most of southern Afghanistan due to soaring Taliban attacks on civilians.

Their work was seen as crucial in shoring up a shaky central government as Afghanistan elects delegates to a December national assembly meeting that will vote on a new draft constitution.

More than 350 people, including civilians, soldiers and aid workers, have been killed since August. Four German ISAF soldiers were killed and 29 injured last June by a suicide bomb attack.

The recent violence in the country is the worst since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 for harbouring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, which Washington holds responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Glimeroth was speaking after holding talks with NATOs top soldier, U.S. General James Jones, who travelled to Afghanistan to see for himself how ISAF - some 5,700 troops from 31 nations -- could take control of so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).

There are eight PRTs, groups of aid workers under military protection, across the country though four of these are barely off the drawing board.

These teams are currently linked to Operation Enduring Freedom, an 11,600-strong U.S.-led force hunting down die-hard elements of the Taliban and al Qaeda.

NATO has agreed in principle to extend ISAFs security wing beyond Kabul by taking command of PRTs, and it has won a new mandate from the United Nations to do so. Glimeroth said that by the end of this year momentum could build to increase the number of PRTs to 12 or 13.