International troops in Afghanistan are "not winning" in the their battle against Taliban forces in the south of the country, the head of US and international forces warned Monday, dpa reported.
General David McKiernan told the BBC that while they were winning in some places, there were large areas - particularly in the south where British forces are based - where more needed to be done to get on top of the situation.
"There are other areas - large areas in the southern Afghanistan especially but in parts of the east - where we are not winning, where more has to happen along multiple lines of operation in order for anybody by any metric to say that the Afghans are winning or the efforts of the coalition are winning," he said.
The comments came as the US administration of President Barack Obama is preparing a troop surge to achieve a "strategic breakthrough" in Afghanistan, especially in the south.
British commanders, government ministers and independent observers have repeatedly spoken of a "strategic stalemate" in southern Afghanistan where British forces have lost around 150 troops since 2001.