Kabul - Seven years down the line fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, the US government wants to shift its focus from the Iraq war to the Afghan conflict.

Analysts believe, however, that the US decision has come too late, as the Taliban have regained control of a large swathe of the country and defeating them appears virtually impossible.

Following their ouster in late 2001 in a US-led invasion, the Taliban movement was regarded as a tiny force of remnants of a defeated ultra-Islamic regime. The Taliban's strength was estimated at less than 2,000 fighters, and Afghan and NATO officials predicted they would be completely eliminated in a few years.

The war against the Taliban and their al-Qaeda supporters lost its significance when US forces invaded Iraq, with international media focusing on the new war. In 2004, Pentagon officials were already mulling over reducing the number of US troops in Afghanistan, which then stood at only around 18,000.

The change of focus to Iraq helped the Taliban tremendously. The militants steadily gained power and launched attacks - mainly organized and coordinated from their "safe havens" inside Pakistani tribal areas - on Afghan and international forces.

Until a year ago, the Taliban insurgency was a furtive operation that carried out mainly hit-and-run ambushes, burned schools during the night, and concentrated their assaults mostly in southern and eastern regions, in the Pashtun-dominated territory that is the bedrock of its support.

But this year the Taliban has emerged as a much larger force, better armed, more sophisticated, and capable of mounting conventional military assaults.

The Taliban today virtually operate a parallel government in every single province of the country, while districts as close as 15 kilometres from the centre of the capital, Kabul, are under the control of the insurgents.

Wary of losing the war in Afghanistan, the US government announced it would send additional troops there. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to end the war in Iraq and focus his military attention on Afghanistan. Obama has also announced he will add
20,000 more US troops to the 32,000 soldiers already deployed in the country.

"I think the decision came too late," said Waheed Muzhda, a former foreign ministry official under the Taliban regime and now a political analyst. "The Taliban are different now, they are a new generation."

"The Taliban don't have a national agenda anymore, meaning they now not only want to drive the US forces out of Afghanistan, but they also want them out of Iraq ... and the Muslim world," Muzhda said.

Qaseem Akhgar, an Afghan writer and political analyst, said that widespread disillusionment with rampant crime, corruption and a lack of jobs has fuelled the Taliban's revival as the de facto power in around half of the country.

"They have support in all corners of the country, it is impossible to defeat the militants now," he said.

There are around 65,000 troops from 40 nations in Afghanistan. About 150,000 Afghan police and army soldiers have been trained by allied forces.

British General David Richards, former commander for the NATO-led forces in the country, has said that he needs 400,000 foreign troops to defeat the insurgents.

"There are around 600,000 international and Iraqi forces in Iraq," General Zahir Azimi, an Afghan defence ministry spokesman said, adding, "Afghanistan is more populated and much bigger than Iraq. Of course we need more forces to eliminate the Taliban."

From the start of 2008, Taliban militants advised by al-Qaeda operatives have targeted government and international forces' positions with spectacular, commando-style attacks.

Taliban suicide bombers attacked the only five-star hotel in Kabul in January, and nearly killed Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a military parade in Kabul in April. Taliban forces this year have also executed foreign aid workers, and hanged or beheaded several Afghans.

Taliban-led violence in the first eight months of this year, according to the United Nations office in Kabul, killed more than 4,000 people, with more than one third of them civilians.

This has also been the deadliest year for US forces in the Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime. More than 150 US soldiers were killed this year, compared to 117 US deaths in 2007.

The militants today operate websites and their propaganda apparatus feeds information to media on every military incident faster than the Afghan or international military sources can manage.

The Taliban are running an organized parallel government in the country. They have appointed provincial and district governors in most parts of the southern and eastern regions. In some areas they collect taxes from farmers and issue road permits to trucks on the highways.

"The Taliban are the real power in my area," said Ahmad Munir Qarizada, a resident of Barakibarak district of Logar province, about
50 kilometres south of Kabul city.

"They have judges and they apply Islamic Sharia in our district," Qarizada said, adding, "The government and police control ends at 4 pm and after that they lock themselves in their military posts, leaving the whole area to the Taliban." (dpa)