Britain's top military commander in Afghanistan has said in an interview that the public should not expect ‘decisive military victory’ there.
He said only the reduction of the insurgency to manageable levels is possible.
Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which has just completed its second tour in Afghanistan, told the Sunday Times that people should ‘lower their expectations’ about how the conflict will end.
He also people should prepare for a possible deal with the Taliban.
‘We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army,’ he told the newspaper.
Brigadier Carleton-Smith said his forces had ‘taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008’ but said it would be unrealistic and probably incredible to think that the multinational forces in Afghanistan could rid the country of armed bands.
The brigadier added that if the Taliban were prepared to talk about a political settlement, then that is precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this.
Britain has 7,800 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US-led operations.
Clashes on Pakistan border
Meanwhile, At least six Taliban insurgents have been killed after Pakistani troops pounded suspected militant hideouts in the troubled tribal district of Bajaur on the Afghan border.
The artillery went into action late last night targeting militants in Rashakai and Tang Khata towns in Bajaur, a hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants, a security official said.
The two places, close to the troubled Afghan province of Khost, were considered militant strongholds in Bajaur where Pakistani forces launched a major offensive in August.
Separately local tribesmen supporting a government assault against militants in the region killed three Taliban insurgents.
The clash erupted when armed men from the Salarzai tribe torched seven houses belonging to Taliban militants or their supporters in Ghandai town in Bajaur, they said.
Tribal elders say that thousands of their men had signed up to fight the rebels in the area.
The army said last week it had killed 1,000 militants including Al-Qaeda's operational commander in the region, Egyptian Abu Saeed Al-Masri since early August.
The military also admitted that the fighting in Bajaur was some of the heaviest since Pakistan joined the US-led fight against terrorism in 2001.
