A purported Taliban commander has said recently the militia is ready for its "biggest ever" offensive in Afghanistan this year, while a boosted NATO-led force says it also plans significant operations.
The first weeks of 2007 have already seen intense fighting, mainly in the southern province of Helmand where the Taliban have held a small town for a fortnight, and the year is shaping up to be as violent as 2006 -- the worst in the insurgency.
A man claiming to be a Taliban commander in Helmand said on Tuesday he had up to 10,000 men ready for action once spring arrives in March.
"We will launch a very big offensive -- the biggest ever seen -- this spring," Mullah Abdul Rahim said in a telephone interview.
"Our troops are ready to go after the enemy. They are waiting for the spring [and] the leaves to appear on the trees," he said in a telephone interview arranged by Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi.
"We have between 8,000 to 10,000 armed men. They're awaiting orders to launch the attack."
His role in the Islamist militia and his claims could not be independently verified.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has scoffed at such talk, labeling it rhetoric and propaganda, but the US military has warned this year's Taliban "spring offensive" could be particularly intense.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Pakistan on Monday to seek support for military activity on the Afghan border in coming months, saying that Pakistani and international forces have a "real opportunity this spring."
The 37-nation ISAF, which came under the command of a US general two weeks ago, is making its own plans, spokesman Colonel Tom Collins said on Tuesday.
"In the coming months, ISAF will conduct significant operations as part of a continued offensive to extend the writ of government and facilitate reconstruction and development," he said.
The previous ISAF chief, British General David Richards, said before his departure the "conditions have been set" for a decisive push this year against Taliban rebels, said to be backed by extremists in Pakistan.
Winter has also seen the establishment of an Afghan, ISAF and Pakistan intelligence-sharing center in Kabul and the training of nearly 3,400 "auxiliary police" to support their regular colleagues.
ISAF has meanwhile swollen to more than 35,000 troops, with the US extending the tour of duty of about 3,500 soldiers for more than four months, and it is putting in place the first "rapid reaction unit."
"I think we will have what we need this year not just to contain it but to deal with it very aggressively," US Ambassador Ronald Neumann said on Tuesday, adding though that he expected "very hard fighting this year."
The effort could be maintained even if NATO countries ignored pleas to send more troops to the force, he said. NATO's military command has said ISAF is about 10 percent short of what it needs.
This year's worst fighting has been in Helmand, Afghanistan's number one opium producer and where most of a British deployment of about 5,200 troops is based.
Ahmed Rashid, an expert on the Taliban, said the militia controls about two-thirds of Helmand.
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