U.S. General Says End of Taliban Is Near

The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan predicted Saturday that the Taliban militia would collapse as a viable fighting force within a year as rank-and-file members accept a reconciliation offer from the Afghan government.

Lt. Gen. David W. Barno warned, however, that remaining Taliban extremists financed and trained by Al Qaeda might attempt to stage a high-profile attack in Afghanistan in the next six to nine months.

“As these terrorists’ capabilities grow more and more limited, the hard-core fanatics will grow more and more desperate to try and do something to change the course of events in Afghanistan,” Barno said at a news conference in Kabul, the capital.

“They will be looking ... to try and score some type of propaganda victory.”

Just hours later, suspected Taliban fighters set off a bomb next to a fuel tanker outside the main U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan, touching off a chain of large explosions that destroyed five tankers and injured three drivers, officials said.

The attack took place just after 3 a.m. today, while Pakistani and Afghan drivers waiting to deliver fuel to the base at Kandahar airport were sleeping, said Gen. Muslim Ahmed, the local Afghan military commander.

No American soldiers were injured.

There were no arrests, and no immediate claim of responsibility. But Ahmed said, “The Taliban perpetrated this terrorist activity.”

Afghan Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari has said recently that senior Taliban figures were in touch with him about giving up the insurgency they have waged since being driven from power in late 2001.

But Saturday, Maulvi Abdul Kabir, who is considered second in the Taliban hierarchy, denied that he had held reconciliation talks with the government.

“There have been no talks with the Americans or the current government and whoever has said this, it has no basis,” he said in a recorded message.

Taliban attacks on Afghan and foreign military forces and government officials have increased in recent weeks following a winter lull, Barno said, and are on pace with the same period in 2004 and 2003.

Neither Barno nor Afghan officials would disclose how many Taliban members have accepted President Hamid Karzai’s reconciliation offer. Under the arrangement, Taliban members must recognize the legitimacy of the elected government in exchange for assurance that they will not face arrest.

Members of Karzai’s administration have stressed that the offer does not extend to roughly 100 top Taliban leaders implicated in serious crimes.