There is an escalating rift between mid-level Taliban and their leaders, after insurgent commanders refused to return to battlefields following their defeat in NATO-led operations in southern Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday, DPA reported.
"There is friction between the Taliban leadership and mid-level commanders," Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's spy agency, told a press conference in Kabul.
The Taliban ground commanders and their fighters retreated to their rear bases inside Pakistan after losing territorial control in major NATO operations in southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar last year, Mashal said.
The fissures were created after the mid-level commanders then refused to return to battlefields in the volatile region as the weather warmed, the spokesman said.
"They (Taliban) don't have enough fighters ... because they (the fighters) are not obeying orders from their leadership," he said.
Due to a lack of manpower, the Taliban and its allied insurgent groups were weakened in conventional battles, Mashal said, adding that they instead were resorting to the use of suicide attacks in Afghanistan.
There has been a wave of suicide attacks since the beginning of this year across the country that has left more than 400 people - mostly civilians - dead.
The Afghan and NATO offensive began early last year with the influx of thousands of US troops in Kandahar and Helmand, the traditional power-base for Taliban.
The combined forces have made progress in routing the Taliban and wresting more areas from the militants, US General David Petraeus, the top commander for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan said in Washington on Tuesday.
He, however said that progress is "fragile and reversible," and requires a long term commitment to ensure it is sustained.
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