Taliban Leader Plans To Reclaim Afghanistan, U.S. Says

Taliban Leader Plans To Reclaim Afghanistan, U.S. Says

Mullah Mohammed Omar has reassembled his power base, U.S. officials say as they outline strategy in Afghanistan. Thousands of additional U.S. troops will be sent to train Afghan forces.

(NSI News Source Info) Washington - March 27, 2009: Afghanistan's former Taliban leader is pursuing a strategy to reclaim power, the top U.S. intelligence official said today, identifying a key administration concern as the White House prepared to unveil a new plan to step up combat operations and stabilization efforts.

Opium and wheat farmer Haji Granj, age 70, complains about Taliban roadside bombs while speaking with U.S. Marines on patrol on March 26, 2009 near Bakwa in southwestern Afghanistan. Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment patrol daily in the area, often with Afghan police. Local opium poppy and wheat farmers say the presence of the Marines has improved security in the region, formerly controlled by the Taliban, although Taliban insurgents continue to creep into the area and plant IEDs on the road at night. Some 17,000 additional U.S. forces will arrive soon to Afghanistan, with the aim of yet further extending the area of U.S. and Afghan government control into more remote areas of the country.

The Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was driven from power by the U.S. invasion in 2001 but has reassembled much of his base in Pakistan, where he leads a council of Islamic hard-liners accused of directing insurgent attacks across the border in Afghanistan. However, U.S. spy agencies lack a detailed understanding of the regional dynamics across much of Afghanistan, said Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence.

"We know a heck of a lot more about Iraq on a very granular basis than we do in Afghanistan," Blair said, describing an intelligence imbalance that could hamper the Obama administration's efforts as it shifts troops from one war theater to the other.

A new strategy for Afghanistan will be formally unveiled by President Obama on Friday. It was described to congressional officials and others today. The strategy includes sending 4,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to train police and army forces, according to officials briefed on details of the plan.

Those troops will be in addition to the 17,000 combat troops Obama approved last month and which are scheduled to arrive this spring and summer.Overall, the strategy will rely on a plan to split the Taliban insurgency -- separating factions that can be induced to support the U.S.-backed government from those seen as irreconcilable.

In a briefing with reporters, Blair said that roughly two-thirds of Taliban militants are primarily concerned with regional issues and can be defeated or co-opted if the struggling government in Kabul can bolster its ability to provide security and services beyond the capital.

But Blair indicated that U.S. intelligence analysts believe the remaining one-third of the insurgency is intractable.

That group, loyal to Omar, is pursuing "an overall strategy pointed towards resuming a position of power within Afghanistan," Blair said.

"Omar is certainly a tough case and thinks he ought to be running Afghanistan himself, and doesn't show many signs of settling for anything less," he said.

Omar is believed to be based in the Pakistan city of Quetta.

The combination of cross-border sanctuaries and limited U.S. intelligence capabilities underscores the hurdles that confront the United States as it seeks to replicate elements of the relatively successful stabilization of Iraq.