Nine years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, a leading international think tank says NATO's strategy to break the Taliban in the country is failing.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Sunday that there is little evidence that the US-led operations have disrupted Taliban's momentum.
"The Taliban are more active than ever and they still enjoy sanctuary and support in Pakistan," said the ICG report.
The Brussels-based think tank added that the coalition's strategy to build popular support among civilians, woo disenchanted rebels and boost Afghan security forces was also failing.
The review also slammed recent efforts to initiate dialogue with the Taliban.
It said the plan would only inflame rivalries between various Afghan groups and increase insecurity for ordinary people.
The report comes as Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently formed a peace council to lead talks with discontented Afghans and militants who have engaged in warfare with the government.
The council was established after senior officials in the UK floated the idea of making peace with the Taliban, whose uprooting was one of the main objectives of the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The US-led occupation was launched with the official aim of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the war-ravaged country. However, the nine-year-old war is getting tougher day by day, with civilian and foreign troop casualties on the rise.
More than 660 US-led soldiers have been killed so far this year, the highest annual casualty count since the war began in 2001.
The number of Afghan civilians killed in the conflict also climbed by a third in the first six months of 2010 to stand at 1,271.
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