Taliban insurgents will carry out more attacks to try to disrupt a security handover in Afghanistan, the governor of Helmand province said on Tuesday, a day before the capital of his own province is due to transfer to Afghan control.
Foreign troops' relinquishing of security control in Lashkar Gah is particularly symbolic, in a week where Afghan forces will also take over six other areas, because Helmand is a Taliban stronghold and one of the country's most violent provinces.
"They have tried and they will try again to disturb this process of transition but we are getting ready for this type of attacks," Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal told Reuters in an interview at his office in the town.
"The Taliban is trying to raise questions (about) this process and give the wrong idea to the people."
A small bomb hit Lashkar Gah on Tuesday morning, but caused no injuries, Mangal said, the day after seven police officers were poisoned and then shot by an apparent insurgent sympathizer within their ranks. Mangal dubbed that attack "cowardly."
"These kind of attacks can't change this process," he added, speaking through an interpreter.
NATO is building up the Afghan army and police, with the aim that foreign combat troops can withdraw from all of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Mangal said he hoped some more Helmand districts would be included in a second phase of transition to be announced later this year, but also called on foreign countries to "complete their promises" to supply more training and modern weaponry.
Afghan forces lack the heavy armored vehicles, artillery and air power that NATO forces can call upon to fight the Taliban, he said.
He also called for better training and equipment for the Afghan Border Police so they could stop insurgents from infiltrating Helmand across a shared border with Pakistan.
On efforts to persuade Taliban fighters to put down their weapons, Mangal said only 30 former insurgents had taken part in official reintegration ceremonies in Helmand, although he believed others had quietly given up the fight.
"There are many people that have joined the reintegration process but have not taken official ceremonies ... They have stopped fighting and they have returned to their families," he said, but without offering any proof.
