BRUSSELS, March 20 (UPI) -- Officials from the German government and NATO are unhappy about comments and actions by U.S. General Dan McNeill, ISAF's new commander in Afghanistan.
McNeill took over as commander of the 36,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in February, and has since aggravated officials, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported in its latest issue.
The German government and the North Atlantic Council in Brussels have criticized McNeill for launching last week's 'Operation Achilles' offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan without informing NATO headquarters in Brussels and the allied NATO powers.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and several ambassadors complained that McNeill had surged ahead unilaterally. They criticized him for saying that the operation, which was originally planned to protect a water dam, was a "spring offensive."
Officials in Berlin were irritated that McNeill also belittled coordinated civilian and military reconstruction efforts, an approach Germany and other partners are supporting to help stabilize the country, the magazine said.
The supreme commander of NATO operations in Europe and head of the U.S. European Command John Craddock, has since expressed his regret about McNeill's behavior, unnamed sources in Brussels told the magazine.
