India Criticises US Campaign

WASHINGTON, Friday - Visiting Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, told The Washington Post daily that the United States was unprepared for war in Afghanistan and that ground forces are now necessary for victory. “The campaign cannot be described as fully satisfactory,” Vajpayee said in an interview published Friday. “It appears (the) Taliban are well entrenched, so ground forces will have to be engaged,” he added. Speaking on the eve of his first meeting here Friday with US President George W. Bush, Vajpayee said the US-led campaign against the Taliban, terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network has been heavily dependent on airstrikes and appeared to be “slackening” at times. “Sometimes there appears there is a stalemate. The next day there is a huge bombardment,” he said. The prime minister said the US military campaign in Afghanistan has suffered from a lack of adequate intelligence and that the opposition Northern Alliance had not received enough weapons or sufficient latitude from Washington to press ground offensives against the Taliban. US bombing in northeastern Afghanistan has helped opposition Northern Alliance to move tantalisingly close to the key city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but opposition spokesmen Thursday reported that Taliban forces were being reinforced by fresh troops from Kabul. Washington has urged the opposition forces to engage the Taliban more forcefully, but a Northern Alliance commander said that despite the heavy bombing raids, the Taliban positions would be difficult to defeat, adding: “The outcome of the battle is determined on the ground.” AFP Ends