in august, french troops took over from the italian force, as part of french president nicolas sarkozy's initiative to increase france's commitment to the war in afghanistan. there had been a fear of militants attacking the three dams that operate in the region. in october 2009, "the times" revealed that the relative calm in the region during the previous italian occupation and since then had been obtained by italian secret services bribing local taliban groups into inaction. the french, unaware of the fact, then ventured into areas with an overoptimistic threat assessment and insufficient equipment. a taliban commander, mohammed ismayel, confirmed the existence of a deal with the italians, though without corroboating the existence of any financial transactions, and explained that the more aggressive attitude of the french troops had caused the guerrilla to attack them. silvio berlusconi denied that any bribes were ever paid and refuted the claims as "totally baseless accusations".