Military

DATE=10/07/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= AFGHANISTAN U-S TALEBAN

NUMBER=2-308325

BYLINE=MICHAEL KITCHEN

DATELINE=KABUL

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Two years after the start of the U-S war against Afghanistan's

former Taleban regime, U-S special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad says attacks

by resurgent Taleban fighters are expected to worsen in the weeks ahead.

But as V-O-A's Michael Kitchen reports from Kabul, the United States

still remains confident of eventual victory.

TEXT: Speaking in Kabul Tuesday, Mr. Khalilzad said the United States

is bracing for the possibility that the Taleban insurgency in

Afghanistan's south and east is about to grow in ferocity.

/// KHALILZAD ACT ///

We know the Taleban have been more active in recent weeks and months,

and there are indications that they ... are planning even larger

attacks, more spectacular attacks, perhaps. And ... our forces and our

coalition partners are prepared to prevent and respond to any increased

Taleban activities.

/// END ACT ///

His remarks come on the second anniversary of the start of the U-S

military campaign to overthrow the Taleban.

Along with Afghan allies, the United States deposed the religiously

extremist government after it refused to surrender leaders of the

al-Qaida terror network, accused of the devastating 2001 attacks on New

York and Washington.

Remnants of the Taleban have continued to oppose Afghanistan's new

transitional government in a guerrilla-style insurgency.

But despite the anticipated expansion of insurgent attacks, Mr.

Khalilzad -- who has been nominated to serve as the next U-S ambassador

to Afghanistan -- believes the Taleban militants will sooner or later

face defeat.

/// KHALILZAD ACT 2 ///

We'll persist. We think time is not with them, because what they stand

for, as their attacks indicate, is not what the people of Afghanistan

would, not what the people of any country would want.

/// END ACT ///

While U-S forces in Afghanistan are concentrating their efforts on the

insurgency, other parts of the country are facing a different type of

security problem.

Feuding local commanders, allied nominally with the central government,

continue to battle each other in some provinces.

More remote regions are also facing terror attacks, and much of the

nation is plagued by banditry.

In order to help the transitional government combat these problems, the

NATO military alliance has now approved plans to expand its

peace-keeping presence beyond the capital Kabul and out into the

provinces.

Their first missions are expected to involve the guarding of

reconstruction projects going on throughout the war-ravaged country.

(SIGNED)

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