Afghanistan vows to crush any Taliban offensive
By Silvia Aloisi ROME (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai vowed on Friday to strike Taliban insurgents with "immense vigour and force" as a rebel commander said 10,000 fighters had deployed for a spring offensive against foreign troops in the country. "As the weather becomes warm and leaves turn green, we will unleash bloody attacks on the U.S.-led foreign troops," Mullah Abdul Rahim, the Taliban's operational commander for the southern Helmand province, said by satellite phone.
"Our war preparations, especially in southern Afghanistan and in Helmand province, are complete and for this our 10,000 fighters are ready to take up arms the moment they are ordered," he said, speaking to Reuters in Afghanistan from a secret location. 
During a visit to Italy, which has sent 1,900 troops to Afghanistan, Karzai said no such offensive could take place without foreign support.
He did not mention any country, but Afghanistan's government says the Taliban fighters are still sponsored by Pakistan, their main backer until the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
"Afghanistan has suffered for the past 30 years because of interference from its neighbours," he told reporters in Rome.
"As for the so-called spring offensive by the Taliban, if there is no support for them from external sources, if they don't have the use of bases and sanctuaries outside Afghanistan not only will an offensive not be possible, but the activities terrorising the population will not take place," Karzai said.
"I hope (foreign support) is not there. And if it's there, we will strike them with immense vigour and force."
More than 4,000 people, a quarter of them civilians, were killed in fighting in 2006, the most violent year since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
NATO commanders expect Taliban insurgents to step up violence again in coming weeks, and on Thursday U.S. President George W. Bush said he would keep higher troop levels in the country in anticipation of fierce fighting.
GAINING SUPPORT?
Washington has contributed more than half of the roughly 45,000 foreign soldiers deployed in Afghanistan -- of which 33,000 are part of a NATO force.
Canadian military officials, who have long complained NATO did not have enough troops in the south of the country, said on Friday the force levels were now adequate.
"The United States is putting in more forces, Britain is putting in more forces. We have sufficient force structure on the ground in the south at this moment to do the job that we have to do," said General Rick Hillier, chief of Canada's defence staff.
Insurgents have already resumed attacks, mainly in the south, where they have captured a major town and threatened a key hydroelectric dam.
An important tactic in any offensive is expected to be suicide bombings, which rose dramatically last year. The Taliban say they have 2,000 suicide bombers ready and another 3,000 in training.
A senior Pakistani official said on Friday the insurgents were gaining popular support.
"It is developing into some sort of a nationalist movement, a resistance movement, a sort of liberation war against coalition forces," said Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, governor of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
(Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai in Spin Boldak, Robert Birsel in Peshawar and David Ljunggren in Ottawa)
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