Nato Kills 50 Insurgents in Afghanistan; Should NATO Really Withdraw From Afghanistan?

Nato and Afghan special forces killed more than 50 militants in a major operation against the Haqqani network in eastern Afghanistan, Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Friday.

According to Reuters reports, disenfranchised insurgents informed the security forces about the location of the Haqqani network camp in the eastern Paktika province and the operation began late Wednesday and ended early Friday, Nato said.

The camp was used by the network to train foreign fighters or fighters brought over the border to carry out attacks across the war ravaged Afghanistan.

The ISAF said that the security forces recovered a lot of weapons, including mortars, rocket propelled grenades with warheads, machine guns with multiple crates of ammunition, AK-47 rifles, grenades and military gear, reported Reuters.

The Haqqani network, an independent insurgent group in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has close ties with the Taliban and has been described by the US military as the most resilient enemy network in Afghanistan, states Wikipedia.

Last month nine people were killed when the network attacked the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.

Afghanistan has been facing increasing threats from insurgents as it tries to take security control into its own hands. On Thursday the city of Herat in western Afghanistan became the fifth of seven areas of the country to transition to local security control this week, reported AFP.

Nato, which plans to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by 2014 and put the nation on the path to stability and self-governance, is trying to conduct peace talks with the Taliban. However, the recent assassination of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, and the killing of Jan Mohammad Khan, a senior aide to the President, has sparked off concerns about whether the complete withdrawal of Nato as advocated by Obama and Cameron is really feasible.

The assassinations for which the Taliban has claimed responsibility are a clear indication that the terrorist groups do not want any peace talks. Nato's withdrawal could lead to the Taliban and other insurgents intensifying their attacks on the nation.