NATO hails 2011 successes in Afghanistan

KABUL — NATO-led forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday gave themselves an upbeat report card for 2011, claiming successes on the battlefield, in the classroom and in preparing to hand over to Afghan forces.

In a "remarkably successful" year, Taliban insurgents had been forced onto the back foot in their southern stronghold, said International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson.

"The success has been so great that insurgents have largely lost control of the area and now rely on IEDs (improvised-explosive devices) as their primary method of attack," he said.

And in the east, troops "significantly disrupted the Haqqani network through Operations Shamshir and Knife Edge, where coalition forces captured or eliminated over 500 insurgent leaders and fighters last fall".
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His remarks came in stark contrast to perceptions that security has worsened in the Afghan capital over the last 12 months with a series of spectacular attacks on Western targets, such as the US embassy siege.

The United Nations has also disagreed with NATO assessments, saying in September that the number of security incidents was up 39 percent on the first eight months of 2010, while ISAF said they were down two percent.