US commanders in Afghanistan are looking to their own country's heavily monitored border with Mexico as part of efforts to stem the flow of Taliban fighters crossing from Pakistan to wage a growing insurgency. US forces say they are considering employing sensors and radar systems of the kind used on the US-Mexico border to control the insurgent "rat lines" (escape routes) straddling Afghanistan's porous 2,430-kilometre (1,510-mile) border with Pakistan.
With Washington committed to start withdrawing some of its 100,000 troops this year, commanders are determined to plug the enemy supply routes feeding an escalating insurgency from safe havens over the border in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. "We're looking at different methods, techniques, technology that can facilitate us doing that," said US Colonel Sean Jenkins, commander of Task Force Currahee in the remote south-eastern border province of Paktika.
"The southern border of the United States has a system, and it's been there for decades. We're actually looking back to an individual that works with that system to see if that would be beneficial." US authorities use mobile surveillance systems, unmanned drones and 20,000 border agents with trucks and horses to stem illegal immigration, drug-trafficking and the spillover of drug violence along 3,140 km (1,950 miles) of border that the United States shares with Mexico.
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