Taliban planning 'offensive' against US: Report

Gearing up for the 'final' battle against US-led forces in Afghanistan, Taliban is regrouping in the Khyber Agency region of Pakistan for the crucial offensive to be mounted in spring under a new commander Mullah Sabir Momin of Orugzan province to recapture major cities, media reports said.     

"The resistance under a new commander is regrouping in the remote Khyber Agency region of Pakistan, using the infrastructure of people and fortifications laid by Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda several years ago," Hong Kong-based 
Asia Times online said in a report.

Pakistan has aided some commanders belonging to the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to counter the growing influence of pro-India elements along the border areas, the report said.

"American intelligence agencies tracked HIA recruiting offices in Pakistani cities such as Karachi and Peshawar and pointed various locations in Pakistan where HIA volunteers were being given training, money and arms," the report said.

The report also said 'legendary' Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani -- who joined Taliban, and became a minister in the erstwhile Afghan regime -- is now the 'main force' behind the resistance in Khost and Paktia province of Afghanistan. He visited Miran Shah in Pakistan several times, but authorities had turned a 'blind eye', the report said.

"The Taliban would now step up their struggle to include more suicide attacks which would be the prelude to a broader struggle that will start in spring in which the Taliban will attempt to retake the major cities in Afghanistan that they held before they were ousted by the US in late 2001," the report said.

The US-led forces have been focussing on South Waziristan Agency in Pakistan as a 'hotbed' for the resistance where guerillas hide and receive support from the local population between raids in Afghanistan.

While the Pakistan Army has undertaken a number of missions in this region 'at US instigation', there has been no major breakthrough in tracking down the ringleaders, the report said.

The remote Khyber agency in North West Frontier Province has now emerged as the 'real centre of resistance action', it said. Two mountainous areas, Tera and Moro, which lie on the Pak-Afghan border, have no roads and the local population is 'almost 100 per cent behind Osama bin Laden and Taliban'.

"Some years ago, Laden had a network of tunnels and underground bunkers built here, which the resistance is now using as hideaways and for the storage of supplies and ammunition as a source of most supply lines into Afghanistan," it said.

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