Kabul, December 28: Time is running out in the fight to eradicate the Taliban from Afghanistan as the extremists evolve, recruit and spread their influence across the country, according to Western military intelligence.
The insurgency is organised, increasingly effective and growing more cohesive, said a senior intelligence officer with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
“The insurgent strength is enabled by the weakness of the Afghan government,” the officer told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The Taliban is funding its operations, which he estimated to cost between USD 100 million to 200 million a year, through “al Qaeda, drugs and taxing the people.”
Its ideology is based on “establishing al Qaeda as a global entity”, ridding the region of foreign forces and establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan work together to those ends.
The United States and its allies “took our eye off the ball” for a number of years, allowing the movement to grow and strengthen, the officer said.
Now, “where the (Afghan) government is weak, the enemy is strong”, able to exploit the corruption and unpopularity of President Hamid Karzai’s administration.
“In 33 out of 34 provinces, the Taliban has a shadow government,” the ISAF officer said, adding that its shadowy leader Mullah Mohammad Omar “has a government-in-waiting, with ministers chosen” for the day the government falls.
—Agencies