SHAHI KOT (Afghanistan): There was too much defeatism in the tea house for young Atiqullah’s taste. He was sure the Taliban would be back.

“Afghanistan’s military and political situation is tumultuous, as unpredictable as spring weather. It is sunny and cool for part of the day and suddenly you see the cloud burst and it rains,” Atiqullah said, hoping that the Taliban would prevail eventually, with Allah’s help. His older companion said the reality on the ground was different.

“The Taliban are not the threat they were a year ago and Americans seem to have succeeded in taking our country,” he said.

Three years after US forces routed hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in the battle of Shahi Kot, in the mountains of southern Paktia province, villagers reluctantly admit the US and the Afghan government forces have almost won the war.

But an anticipated spring offensive in the last few weeks showed the Taliban were still in business after a long winter lull that followed their failure to disrupt Afghanistan’s presidential poll last October.

A plan by President Hamid Karzai to offer amnesty to all but the most-hardened Taliban fighters could weaken the insurgency.

Karzai also dropped leading anti-Taliban figures from his new cabinet, and there have been several reports by security forces of Taliban surrendering recently.

“The Taliban are neither weakened nor will any one of them surrender arms to the infidels. The reports of surrenders are just propaganda by the occupying infidel forces,” Mullah Dadullah, one of the most-wanted Taliban commanders, said by satellite telephone.—Reuters