Taliban fighters moving with ease: report

Militants from Pakistan, Chechnya and the Middle East are moving in and out of Afghanistan's southern region with ease, despite a Canadian-led siege in the area, a local leader says.

While NATO has claimed 700 Taliban fighters are trapped in the Panjwaii area west of Kandahar, locals say there is an easy escape route that has gone unguarded by Canadian and Afghan troops, allowing insurgents to resupply.

Far from fleeing, an unknown number of foreign insurgents are joining the battle against Canadian troops and their allies, according to Haji Kheerdin, the Zhari District elder who is an ally of international forces in the area.

"One side is open," Kheerdin said. "And these fighters can easily move in and out of this place."

NATO launched Operation Medusa last weekend — the largest land offensive yet — aimed at driving Taliban insurgents from the Panjwaii region, where they have launched numerous attacks on international forces.

Five Canadians have died and dozens have been wounded since the operation started Sunday.

We smell their defeat: NATO

Commanders with the alliance maintain they are making progress.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Wednesday the Talibanare mistaken if they believe they can win the south.

"They are wrong. Because they cannot win, they will not win," the NATO chief said. "That is why we are engaged in combat as well at this very moment."

Another NATO commander on the ground said coalition troops can sense the downfall of the Taliban.

"You [can] smell defeat when you've been in the army for a bit and we're beginning to whiff it there," said Lt.-Gen. David Richards.

He praised the roughly 2,300 Canadians soldiers stationed in southern Afghanistan.

"You would be proud of the way your Canadian soldiers have conducted themselves in absolutely the highest traditions of your armed force," Richards said.

Taliban organized, expert says

One longtime expert on the Taliban said he believes the U.S. underestimated the military capabilities of the militant group, which has had years to regroup in southern Afghanistan.

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and author, said the Taliban weren't wiped out when the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan ended in 2001, but simply scattered about the country.

With the exception of a few hundred special forces, there hasn't been a strong American presence in southern Afghanistan for the past five years, he said.

"It's very clear there was this huge vacuum which was unoccupied neither by the Americans or the Afghan government."

Rashid says the Taliban have developed modern guerrilla-style tactics and become more organized than they were before the war. They now have the ability to gather in battalion-sized units, launch an attack and disperse before American jets can reach the scene, he said.

"All this points to a much more organized force than we've seen before," Rashid said.

Karzai, Musharraf meet

In talks Wednesday to address the threat of militant extremism in their countries, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told Afghan President Hamid Karzai they are both fighting al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the "Talibanization" of society.

It's believed Taliban and al-Qaeda militants freely cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan's border region, where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

Pakistan's tribal regions, including North and South Waziristan, have witnessed increased Taliban influence since Pakistani forces deployed to the region after the Sept. 11 and the war in Afghanistan.

While Musharraf warned he wouldn't let the border region become a militant sanctuary, he said Pakistan would never allow U.S.-led coalition forces into the tribal regions.

"On our side of the border there will be a total uprising if a foreigner enters that area," he said at a joint news conference with Karzai. "It's not possible at all. We will never allow any foreigners into that area. It's against the culture of the people there."