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Washington (AFP) Oct 27, 2010 The US military campaign against the Taliban has failed to destroy the group or pressure its leaders to seek peace, the Washington Post said Wednesday, citing US military and intelligence officials. The intense military campaign, including drone strikes and more commando attacks, has inflicted some temporary setbacks on the Afghan insurgency, the sources told the newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity. However US intelligence officials say that captured or killed Taliban commanders are often replaced in days, the insurgents seem content with small scale tactics of intimidation and assassination, and appear confident they can outlast the US troop buildup. "The insurgency seems to be maintaining its resilience," an unnamed senior Defense Department official involved in war assessments told the Post. Taliban fighters have consistently shown that they can "reestablish and rejuvenate," sometimes just days after a defeat by US forces, the official said. According to the Post, the assessments "are consistent across the main spy agencies responsible for analyzing the conflict, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency." The joint CIA-military efforts to target Taliban leaders have caused senior operatives to move more often and increase security. But the impact on the Taliban's highest ranks has been limited, the Post said. "For senior leadership, not much has changed," the defense official told the newspaper. "At most we are seeing lines of support disrupted, but it's temporary. They're still setting strategic guidance" for operations against the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. Taliban operatives have been focusing on President Barack Obama's stated intention to start withdrawing troops in mid-2011. Taliban operatives, citing leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, tell one another, "The end is near," the officials told the Post.
earlier related report The International Security Assistance Force gave no further details and does not identify nationalities of casualties as a matter of policy. Wednesday's death brings to 603 the number of foreign troops to die this year in Afghanistan, according to an AFP tally based on the independent icasualties.org website that tracks military deaths. The figure is by far the highest annual toll in nine years of war and on average, two soldiers die each day. More than 2,170 foreign soldiers have now been killed since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan overthrew the hardline Islamist Taliban regime. The United States and NATO have more than 150,000 soldiers in the country fighting the Taliban-led insurgency, which is concentrated in the south but has spread increasingly to previously peaceful parts of the north and west.
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