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KABUL (Reuters) - Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has lost control of the insurgency in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and the number of attacks has fallen dramatically, a senior U.S. general said Monday.
Taliban spokesmen have said attacks will resume once the harsh Afghan winter is over.
But Major General Eric T. Olson told a news conference in Kabul that the Taliban lacked cohesion and were a fading force in the southern and southeast provinces that had been their strongholds.
"We believe that this spring there will be a number of factors combined to make this so-called spring offensive much less effective and much lesser scale than we've seen in the past in Afghanistan," said Olson.
Remnants of Mullah Omar's hard-line Islamist militia have kept up an insurgency since being driven from power in late 2001 for giving shelter to al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), following the Sept. 11 suicide airliner attacks in the United States.
Olson, who last month warned U.S. policymakers against cutting troop levels in Afghanistan because the Taliban and al Qaeda posed a grave threat, now sees a "dramatic decrease" in the number of attacks.
President Hamid Karzai's government will soon announce an amnesty offer to rank-and-file Taliban fighters, Olson said, and he expected the number of diehards to dwindle further by the time parliamentary elections are held later this year.
The elections were due in April or May, but are now expected to be delayed until September.
Many saw the Taliban's inability to mount an effective threat to last October's presidential election as a sign the movement was a spent and demoralized force.
Olson said about 30 fighters, described as mid-level in the Taliban, had surrendered to U.S.-led forces recently.
Karzai has said his government is in contact with Taliban members and the amnesty offer will not extend to Mullah Omar or up to 150 of his most hardened followers.
Omar's whereabouts remains a mystery, said Olson, but the U.S. general was convinced that wherever he is, Omar no longer exerts control over the Taliban.
"It seems very clear to us, given the disjointed and uncoordinated effort that the Taliban has been able to launch, that those types of leaders, Mullah Omar specifically, are not exercising an effective command and control over Taliban operations in Afghanistan."
He put this down to the success of U.S.-led forces in both combat operations and in winning over support from local communities, leaving the insurgents isolated.
Nearly 1,100 people including militants, civilians, aid workers, and government and foreign forces have died in Taliban-linked violence since late 2003, when the guerrillas stepped up their campaign of violence.
