US commanders say the Taliban is a viable resistance force in Afghanistan even three years after the Islamic radicals fell, but the US military's fight to undermine their influence and bring stability is showing signs of progress.
The assessment follows a stretch in which US troops in Afghanistan have been killed at a higher rate than those in Iraq, where there are about eight times as many American soldiers and where the situation is widely perceived as more dangerous.
Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, plans to meet US President George W. Bush at the White House today. It will be his first Washington visit since his inauguration in December as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.
Optimism
Combat in Afghanistan has intensified in recent weeks, as expected, after a winter lull. US commanders, however, say they think their plan for improving security -- including the expansion of Afghan army, border patrol and police forces -- is on track.
Brigadier General Greg Champion, a deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, said in a telephone interview on Friday from his headquarters at Bagram airfield that the recent increase in insurgent violence was mainly because of a more aggressive approach by US and Afghan forces.
"We have not taken a posture of waiting" for the Taliban to begin their usual spring offensive, he said. Instead, US and Afghan forces have been "going on our own offensive."
Attacks continue
Insurgent attacks continue, however. Suspected Taliban militants gunned down six Afghan employees of a US-funded anti-drug project in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. Also, an Italian aid worker was kidnapped this past week in Kabul, the capital, adding to the fears of relief groups that are vital to the reconstruction effort.
The US has about 16,700 troops in Afghanistan, with 22 allied nations contributing an additional 1,600. NATO operates a security force of about 8,000 international troops.
As a proportion of their total numbers, US troops in Afghanistan recently have been dying at a slightly higher rate than in Iraq, where there are about 135,000 troops.
Since early March, 27 US military personnel have died in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, or about 1.6 per 1,000; the latest death came from a bombing on Saturday, with a purported Taliban spokesman claiming responsibility.
During the same time period in Iraq, at least 124 have died, a rate of about 0.9 per 1,000.
Karzai has said he will press Bush for a "strategic partnership" encompassing long-term political, economic and military assistance.
He also is expected to request that Afghans detained at the detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at military jails in Afghanistan be turned over to Afghan authorities.
Bush has not set a timetable for completing the military mission in Afghanistan and US commanders say they have no reliable data on the number of Taliban fighters still in the resistance.
Champion said the militants also include elements like the Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin, or HIG, an Islamic extremist group founded in the 1990s.
Strategy
The US strategy has been to develop an Afghan army, border patrol and police force that can handle the insurgents, while encouraging the central government to expand its authority outside of Kabul as the international community plays a bigger role developing the economy.
In an indication of the military's optimistic view, General John Abizaid, the commander of all US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, said last week that an Army battalion of several hundred soldiers that was to deploy to Afghanistan this summer has been called off. Instead the unit will be on call in the US in case of an emergency.
"We're pretty confident that we're moving in a good direction there," Abizaid said.
The movement is not quick, however.
During a visit to Afghanistan in April, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was told by the top commander there at the time, Lieutenant General David Barno, that the capabilities of the Afghan police ranged from "pretty good to extraordinarily bad."
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