Blair warns of fiercer Afghan insurgency

By Sophie Walker

LONDON (Reuters) - Afghanistan risks being overwhelmed by the same anti-Western violence that has torn up Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned on Tuesday.

Asked about the Iraq war, which cast a huge shadow over his 10 years in office, the outgoing leader said the West had failed to take into account the extent of al Qaeda's reach and that Iraq would attract militants seeking to attack Western forces.

"The mistake was not understanding the fundamentally rooted nature of this global movement that we face and that actually in a situation, whether Iraq or Afghanistan, where you are trying to bring about a different form of government, these people will try to stop us," he said after a speech on media at Reuters headquarters in London.

"Actually, the worry is that we must be careful that Afghanistan is not then subject to the same attempt to undermine and collapse the proper support for democracy," said Blair, who is due to resign on June 27.

This year is seen to be a decisive one in the battle for Afghanistan. NATO troops are taking on Taliban fighters in the worst fighting since the Islamist militia was ousted in 2001 for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden after September 11.

The Taliban has since been boosted by safe havens and training grounds in Pakistan, its former sponsor.

It has expanded its tactics to include al Qaeda-style suicide bombs and earlier this month tried to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a rocket attack.

Britain has ramped up troop levels in Afghanistan this year to about 7,000 from 5,000, as part of a 30,000-strong NATO force. Top military and diplomatic officials have lined up to warn of the increasing depth of the insurgency.

"We face a serious situation ... clearly in the south and east there is a serious and chronic insurgency," Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan, Sherard Cowper-Coles, said.

"It is very scary and will take time to tackle," he told BBC radio on Tuesday.