International forces under the banner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are continuing to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. But NATO field commanders are hindered by certain restrictions placed on troops by European governments.
NATO has more than 60,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of a United Nations mandated contingent known as the "International Security Assistance Force" - or ISAF.
ISAF troops are located in most parts of the country. One of their most difficult missions is to fight insurgents in southern Afghanistan - home of the Taliban, ousted from power by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001.
"Caveats"
Analysts say NATO is hindered in its fight against the Taliban by so-called "caveats" - restrictions placed by various NATO countries on what their forces can or cannot do.
Tomas Valasek, at the London-based Center for European Reform, describes some of those restrictions.
"What's happening is that whenever a call for troops comes in for a particular operation, the different contingents come back, or get back to the NATO commanders saying, well we'd love to take part but under the national 'caveat' we are not allowed to operate in this particular area, or we're not allowed to operate this far away from the base, or we are not allowed to operate at night," he said.
Valasek says NATO commanders in the field are finding it difficult to put together a workable strategy....
