The Scotsman
By Jerome Starkey in Herat

ONE of Afghanistan’s most powerful warlords has urged America not to send more troops, insisting there are enough to beat the Taleban already – if the rest of Nato simply pulled its weight.

Ismail Khan, the self-styled Emir of western Afghanistan, and three-decade veteran of fighting the Taleban and the Russians, was particularly scathing about the Italian forces, in his hometown of Herat.

He said: “Most of the time they sit in their bases. We don’t need more Americans. The troops that we have already – the Italians, if they were more active, if they fought, then the situation would get better.”