Interesting story from Al Jazeera:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/20091091814483962.html
US: Taliban has grown fourfold
Taliban-led forces fighting US and Nato troops in Afghanistan have increased nearly fourfold since 2006, according to a US intelligence estimate presented to the US president.
The report says that the number of Taliban fighters has grown to 25,000, from 7,000 four years ago, the officials said on Friday as Barack Obama convened a fifth cabinet-level meeting on his country's military strategy in Afghanistan.
1 comment:
I'm not sure it's really a growth in the Taliban as much as a spreading nationalist movement to rid the country of Infidel occupiers. There have been reports that the university in Kabul is a rich source of kids willing to fight to drive us out. Then there are Hekmatyar's and Haqqani's militias. Toss in aggrieved locals looking to avenge the deaths of family members, kids needing an income, common criminals and the drug lords and, yes, it is growing. Worse still, it's becoming increasingly resilient and much harder to tackle as it morphs from what began as an insurgency into a more classic rebellion.
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