"Kandahar city is nationally critical," said Steve Biddle, from the Centre of Foreign Relations think tank in Washington. "It's one of the small number of places where a true setback could be a war loser."

A combat brigade of about 4,000 US soldiers has been sent to the volatile 54,000-square-kilometre (21,000-square-mile) southern province.

Until their arrival, just 2,800 Canadian troops had spent the last three years trying to ensure security for the province's 900,000 people.

"Taliban have always viewed Kandahar city as the jewel of the south and as their ultimate goal," said US intelligence officer Captain Mark Richardson. "They believe that what Kandahar does, all the Afghans will do."

As the Afghan conflict enters its ninth year, the Taliban in Afghanistan now control most of the 17 districts in the province and have spread into Kandahar, Afghanistan's second city and the movement's spiritual home.

In a sign of its importance to the NATO coalition, the heavily-guarded military base to the south of the city has grown into the second-biggest behind Bagram, near the capital Kabul.

Originally constructed for 12,000 people, the base now has between 30,000 and 40,000 occupants from all countries participating in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations -- and is getting bigger.

Armoured vehicles stretch as far as the eye can see, as Black Hawk helicopters, F-16 fighter jets and cargo planes take off and land in conveyor-belt succession.

The United States has deployed the majority of the 21,000 extra soldiers sent by President Barack Obama to Kandahar and the neighbouring province of Helmand, which produces most of the world's opium.

"Taliban have been very active in the south and I think we ignored them for the most part and concentrated our effort in the east, where Al-Qaeda was more active," a Pentagon military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We really lost control of areas in the south."

Officials and experts criticise the decision to send most of the reinforcements to Helmand, which is less populous than Kandahar and seen as less influential to the war-torn country's future.

"If we retake Kandahar, if the people are satisfied and development works, that will spread everywhere in Afghanistan. Afghans say that change comes from Kandahar," said a Western official familiar with the situation.

Three months after their arrival, US troops tasked with securing the main supply routes leading to Kabul, maintain they have had some successes.

"We have made incredible progress," said Richardson, pointing to the Taliban withdrawal from its stronghold in Arghandab district, north of Kandahar.

But it has come at a price. About 20 US soldiers have already been killed, most of them in attacks by the insurgents' weapon of choice, improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

And the battle is far from won, faced with a tenacious enemy and difficult terrain.

"Kandahar is a microcosm of the strategic problems of the country," said Biddle.

"There has to be a serious security force presence in the city. And the perception that it's better if it'd be Afghan is exactly right. However the Afghan government in Kabul has not been particularly supportive."

The Western official added: "The Taliban and others are taking advantage of the debate about troops and saying, 'the foreigners won't stay beyond two years'. That has had a negative impact on the population."

In addition, people here are victims of intimidation and racketeering by the Taliban, who often act with impunity. Several local leaders, fearing for their lives, do not even live in their own districts.

International forces accept that they have come up against the problem of corruption of local authorities, which is hampering efforts to win the support of the population.

The underpaid Afghan police are widely seen as corrupt. Many Afghans also accuse the head of the provincial council, Ahmed Wali Karzai whose brother is the Afghan president, of involvement in criminal activities including drug trafficking.

Rampant corruption is laying the foundations for insurrection, a number of international observers said on condition of anonymity.

earlier related report
Afghan defeat would give Al-Qaeda propaganda coup: Gates
A victory by insurgents in Afghanistan would allow Al-Qaeda to resume a foothold in the country and provide it with a "hugely empowering message," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned.

Gates said Monday evening there was no doubt that if Taliban insurgents took hold of "large portions" of Afghanistan, it would mean "added space for Al-Qaeda to strengthen itself."

He was speaking before an audience at George Washington University in an interview with CNN which was to air Tuesday.

Although it was unclear whether Al-Qaeda would move its base of operations from northwest Pakistan back to Afghanistan if Islamist insurgents took power in Kabul, Gates said the symbolism of a US and NATO defeat would hand Al-Qaeda a major propaganda victory.

"But what's more important in my view is the message that it sends, that empowers Al-Qaeda," said Gates, in a joint interview along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He also said there was no question of the United States pulling out of Afghanistan, despite a strategy review underway at the White House.

"I had lunch with the Pakistani ambassador last week, and I made absolutely clear to him: we are not leaving Afghanistan," Gates said.

Gates stressed there was no doubt about US interests in the region which carried tremendous importance for Al-Qaeda and the network's ideology.

The Afghanistan-Pakistan border "is the modern epicenter of jihad," he said.

"It is where the mujahedeen defeated the other superpower," said Gates, referring to the Soviet defeat in the 1980s at the hands of Islamist militants.

The Al-Qaeda leaders believe "they now have the ability to defeat a second superpower," he said.

"Al-Qaeda in many respects is an ideology and the notion that they have come back from this defeat... to challenge not only the United States, but NATO, 42 nations and so on, is a hugely empowering message -- should they be successful," said Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

His comments come amid a high-stakes review of war strategy at the White House, with President Barack Obama facing a request from the US commander to send in more troops even as American forces are due to reach 68,000 by the end of the year.

Gates's statements contrasted with some of the mission's skeptics in Congress, who argue Al-Qaeda leaders have regrouped in neighboring Pakistan and that the fight against Afghan insurgents may be a costly distraction.

US forces have been battling the Taliban since toppling the regime eight years ago following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Gates said the Taliban had regrouped in the years after its ouster while the United States and its NATO allies had failed to provide sufficient forces to counter the insurgents.

"The reality is that because of our inability and the inability frankly of our allies to put enough troops into Afghanistan, the Taliban do have momentum right now it seems," he said.

On Saturday a brazen assault by hundreds of militants in the remote eastern province of Nuristan left eight US soldiers dead, in NATO's biggest loss of life in a single incident in Afghanistan in more than a year.

Both Gates and Clinton said the goal of coalition forces -- to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven again for Al-Qaeda -- had not changed, and that the president's strategy review was designed to assess the best way to achieve that objective.

Gates and Clinton voiced support for the pace of White House deliberations as thorough and necessary, despite criticism from Republicans in Congress accusing Obama of indecision on the war.

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