As the fighters reach more and more towns and villages, suicide attacks are on the rise in once peaceful areas. <\/p>\n
For many, the recent attack by 100 Taliban fighters in the province of Kapisa, a largely Tajik enclave 60 miles from Kabul, illustrates the strengthening hold of the group across Afghanistan. <\/p>\n
Some Western and Afghan officials are reluctantly admitting that the Taliban exert a lot of control over most of the southern and eastern provinces — and the group appears to be strengthening its hold on the Farah province to the west.<\/p>\n
The Taliban has shown a growing skill for taking advantage of the corruption-plagued and weakened government of President Hamid Karzai and clan rivalries that can destabilize whole regions.<\/p>\n
The Taliban’s unholy alliance with opium smugglers, who also benefit from the government’s loss of power, is another key factor in the Taliban’s resurgence. <\/p>\n
One former Taliban official and Afghan author on the group says the Taliban’s goal at this stage is not to take over Afghanistan — which they neither have the manpower nor popular support for — but to force the ouster of Western troops from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n