Afghan spy chief laments intelligence vacuum as foreign troops leave

(Reuters) - The departure of most foreign troops fromAfghanistan has left an intelligence-gathering vacuum that facilitates Taliban attacks, the head of the Afghan spy agency said on Wednesday.

Summoned to parliament to explain a surge in suicide bombings and commando-style assaults across Afghanistan, including in the fortified capital Kabul, intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil blamed a loss of manpower and technology.

"There were some 150,000 foreign troops in every corner of the country, equipped with drone air power which is no more," Nabil told lawmakers.

Some foreign drone strikes still take place in Afghanistan but the NATO-led coalition ends its combat mission this month, withdrawing all but 12,500 troops and leaving the 350,000-member Afghan forces to fight the Taliban insurgency.

Nabil cited the example of the violent southern province of Helmand where hi-tech surveillance balloons used by U.S.-led forces were removed as foreign bases shut.

"There were 65 spy balloons in Helmand that could detect if someone was carrying a weapon on the back of a motorbike," Nabil said, adding he now relied on six agents to gather intelligence in one vast district in the province, a Taliban stronghold that has seen some of this year's most deadly attacks.

In Helmand's capital on Wednesday, militants detonated a suicide bomb, then stormed a bank branch packed with government employees collecting their salaries, killing six people.

This year has been the deadliest of the 13-year war. More than 4,000 Afghan soldiers and police have died, a record high since the U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.  More

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