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Add an EventNato warns of gains by Taleban
Gen McNeill said he expected the Taleban to regroup over winter
Gen Dan McNeill said the alliance had made some important military gains over the past six months in Helmand.
But he expressed concern that Afghan security forces would not be able to hold on to the territory as the Taleban regroup over winter.
About 25 British troops have been killed there in the past six months.
Tactics in Helmand province, in the south of Afghanistan, over the past six months have been to push the Taleban out of the lush river valleys where the insurgents have had a stronghold.
The tactics have meant close-quarters fighting for British troops.
Exit strategy
Gen McNeill, in an interview with BBC correspondent Alastair Leithhead, said this had been a successful military strategy but that he was concerned the job of holding the ground would not be done effectively by Afghan national security forces.
He said some of the ground taken may have to be taken all over again next year if the Taleban regroup over the winter as he fears they will.
"I think there is some chance of that because the Afghan national security forces have not been as successful in holding as we would like them to be," he said.
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McNeill said British forces may need to launch new operations in Helmand against the Taliban [AP]
Afghan forces may be unable to hold areas of Afghanistan captured by Nato should Taliban fighters launch a new offensive, the commander of the Nato-led force has said. General Dan McNeill said on Friday that British troops serving in Nato may have to launch new operations against the Taliban in Helmand province, months after Nato took control.
"I think there is some chance of that because the Afghan national security forces have not been as successful in holding as we would like them to be," McNeill, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), told the BBC. "We are likely to have to do some of this work again."
In the past six months about 25 British soldiers have been killed in Helmand province, where most of Britain's 7,000 troops are deployed. Another 800 soldiers are due to join the British contingent in Isaf by the end of the year.
Captors contacted
Also in Afghanistan, negotiators made contact on Friday with the captors of four workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The men, two of whom are foreigners, were on a mission to free a German kidnapped by the Taliban when they were seized on Wednesday in Wardak province, about 50km from the capital, Kabul
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