Kabul: Taliban rebels have grown in 'strength and influence' recently and now have a hard-core group of fighters in restive southern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said on Wednesday.
His comments follow some of the deadliest fighting since the hard-line Taliban regime's was ousted in 2001.
"There is a hard-core group of Taliban fighters, certainly numbering in hundreds," US military spokesman Col Tom Collins told reporters in Kabul.
"We know for a fact that in recent weeks they have grown in strength and influence in some parts of Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan," he said.
The three southern provinces are most wracked by the insurgency.
He also said the militants are recruiting poor villagers. "They prey upon people who don't have a lot of hope."
"These people may not believe much in the cause, but they need a job,” Collins added.
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