The Taliban are gaining strength in parts of Afghanistan, the US military said tonight, after a week of the heaviest fighting in years was reported to have killed about 300 people.
Nearly five years after they were forced from power by US and Afghan forces, the Taliban appear better organised and more aggressive than at any time since their ouster in 2001.
Most of those killed in a series of clashes since Wednesday last week were militants but dozens of Afghan police, soldiers and civilians have also been killed, along with four foreign soldiers.
In the latest fighting, US and Afghan government forces killed 24 insurgents in a battle in Uruzgan province in the south yesterday. An Afghan policemen and four Afghan soldiers were also killed, the US military said.
"There's no doubt that the Taliban have grown in strength and influence in certain areas in Kandahar, Helmand and in southern Uruzgan," US military spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told a briefing, referring to three southern provinces.
"That's why we're going after them," he said.
The rising tide of violence, the worst since US and Afghan opposition forces routed the Taliban after they refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, comes as thousands of NATO peacekeepers are arriving.
The alliance will take over security duties in the south from US forces in late July.
The commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry, met President Hamid Karzai to explain the killing of civilians during an offensive against Taliban insurgents on Monday, the president's office said.