North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops should remain for long in Afghanistan: Germany

“We see an escalation of Russian military activity in Syria”, Stoltenberg said.

The Taliban’s recent success in Kunduz is also something of a pull. Once again, the Taliban flag was hoisted over the city’s central square and fluttered there until the next day, when Afghan forces fought back. That’s not too surprising: The Taliban had set up headquarters there in Kandahar. “I think Afghanistan will have to continue to show progress as we move forward to keep donor support”.

“I will appeal today that we don’t organise the withdrawal from Afghanistan according to a rigid timetable, but that we analyse the situation there and coordinate the withdrawal accordingly step by step”, von der Leyen said.

“When the president made that decision [to withdraw], [he] did not take into account the changes over the past two years”, he explained.

Speaking before Congress on October 6, U.S. Gen. John Campbell testified that Afghan forces under attack by the Taliban had requested the errant airstrike. “It will take time for [the Afghans] to build their human capital” in terms of logistics and managing their forces in the field, he said. “This has been going on and on and on”, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., said.

President Obama and former secretary Hillary Clinton came into office promising to win the “good war”.

Anna Fotyga, who chairs the European Parliament’s influential subcommittee on security and defense, also accused Russian Federation of “trying to destroy” the opposition in Syria rather than fighting IS.

“You just don’t turn a country into a strong military force that can defend itself overnight”, the congressman said.

“We will assess what we have to do to adapt North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to current and future challenges”, he said_including cyberattacks and the mix of conventional and unconventional tactics commonly known as hybrid warfare.

During the Taliban’s occupation of Kunduz, Germany said it would consider redeploying forces in Afghanistan.

Earlier, British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon accused Russian Federation of acting chiefly in Syria not to attack the Islamic State terrorist organization but to support Assad, thus making a serious situation “much more risky”.

The Kunduz attack, it seems, was merely a dry run for the Taliban, which now hope to sow panic in Kabul and test the commitment of a Washington that appears to lack the stomach, resources, and will for yet another surge in a conflict it thought it had left behind. He went on to say that “The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) believes if the country is not under occupation, the problem of the Afghans can be resolved through intra-Afghan understanding”.

Pakistan’s military has rejected allegations by Afghanistan’s deputy army chief that Pakistani generals were involved in the Taliban’s brief capture of Kunduz and had escaped the city wearing burqas.

Pakistan’s military and especially intelligence services have been sympathetic to the Taliban.

“If we withdraw from Afghanistan, the security vacuum will arise and other extremist networks such as [ISIL] could rapidly expand and sow unrest throughout Central and South Asia and potentially target our homeland”, the general said.

The developments in northern Afghanistan prompted Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Tuesday.