The Taleban are reportedly preparing a spring offensive against American forces in Afghanistan, with 300 suicide bombers ready to attack installations.
Recent attacks on the coalition forces in the eastern Afghan province of Khost and in Kandahar has given the Taleban a tremendous boost. Operation Anaconda was seen as a victory for the Taleban after what they saw as a premature end to the American offensive, with many fighters fleeing into Pakistan after relatively limited casualties.
Maulvi Mehmood Din, a senior Taleban official who has just visited several Afghan provinces, said that guerrilla actions in Afghanistan would intensify in May.
One of the many activists now based in Pakistan, he said: ìWe have some 300 suicide bombers ready to attack the American installations in Afghanistan. They are confident of mobilising support among the Pashtuns, who they believe would not accept a foreign-propped government in Kabul. ìPeople are still with us and the Americans are being sucked into a war which they can never win,î he said.
Mr Din has just returned from Kandahar and Helmand provinces where he said he met several Taleban leaders. His elder brother, Abdul Haq, a former minister in the conservative Afghan regime, has been in Afghanistan for the past couple of weeks planning the comeback as the Taleban begin to regroup to fight a protracted guerrilla war.
ìWe are waiting for the snow to melt,î another Taleban member in a border refugee camp said. ìMost of our fighters are still there and can be activated at short notice.î He claims that they have enough arms stockpiled to continue fighting for several years.
There is concern over a growing nexus between Taleban and Pakistani radical Islamic groups who are challenging the Government of President Musharraf.
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