Gates: NATO troops in Afghanistan green

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said NATO troops from Canada, Britain and the Netherlands aren't experienced enough to fight insurgents in Afghanistan.

In a Washington interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gates noted a rise in the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgency in the south, where those NATO forces are fighting.

"I'm worried we're deploying (military advisers) that are not properly trained and I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations," Gates said.

In response, a European NATO official involved in Afghan planning, who asked not to be identified, angrily denied Gates' claim, the Times said. He said much of the violence can be attributed to the insufficient number of U.S. troops who had patrolled the region before NATO's takeover in mid-2006.

"The reason there is more fighting now is because we've uncovered a very big rock and lots of things are scurrying out," the official said.

The NATO forces are led by a U.S. commander, Army Gen. Dan McNeill.