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Taliban's spring offensive doesn't pan out
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 west of Quetta, Pakistan near the Afghan border, Friday, June 1. More than 12,000 people listened to the speech by the brother of Mullah Dadullah, the top Taliban commander who was killed in a U.S. operation last month in southern Afghanistan, a cleric said.','pp'))
A pro-Taliban supporter keeps guard beside a banner of slain Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah as his followers listen to an audiotaped speech by cleric Dadullah Mansoor during a rally in Killi Nalai village, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) west of Quetta, Pakistan near the Afghan border, Friday, June 1. More than 12,000 people listened to the speech by the brother of Mullah Dadullah, the top Taliban commander who was killed in a U.S. operation last month in southern Afghanistan, a cleric said.
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The Taliban's annual spring offensive in Afghanistan, while not a dud, has turned out to be a lot less effective in 2007 than in previous campaigns. U.S. officials say NATO- and U.S.-led forces did a better job of anticipating this one. It launched major preemptive strikes, especially in the Taliban hotbed of Helmand Province.
"We anticipated and we didn't wait for anything to happen first," said retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong. He was deputy commander of U.S. Central Command at the time of the October 2001 allied invasion to oust the Taliban from Kabul.
"We went out and did large operations and we killed 30 and 40 at a time," he said of this spring's operations. "We also captured a lot of the Taliban leaders. This put a crimp in their style. They didn't expect that."
DeLong said the Taliban's tactic of fighting in clusters of 40 or more is backfiring. More Afghans are willing to provide tips to American, British and other allied forces on the enemy's whereabouts. With pinpoint intelligence like that, the allies can wipe out scores of enemy in one strike.
Army Col. John Nicholson, a brigade commander in eastern Afghanistan, said that after months of mountain warfare his infantrymen are more experienced than the indigenous Taliban. "We've defeated the enemy every time we've met him," Nicholson told reporters.
The Taliban scored a string of victories in its 2006 spring campaign, retaking villages in the south around Kandahar, the birthplace of its harsh Islamic movement.
The U.S. was forced to request more troops from NATO allies and then launch an all-out counter offensive to recapture Taliban-held territory.
Ronald Neumann, who in April relinquished the U.S. ambassador's job in Kabul, sees a marked difference.
"Now, there's still areas of Kandahar that are very dicey, but where we had the heaviest fighting last year .... you now have comparative quiet with a rather small force of Canadians and Afghans there," he told PBS last week.
Neumann said Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah had bragged that his forces would control Helmand this spring. "Well, they didn't roll forward," Neumann said. "The offensive that he said was going to be bigger than last year is smaller than last year."
There are 47,000 allied forces in Afghanistan. NATO's International Security Assistant Force has 35,000 troops from 37 countries, including the U.S.'s 16,000. The U.S. also has 12,000 troops as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Afghanistan still faces stiff challenges. Poppy and heroin production reached record levels in 2006.
