NATO heading for defeat in Afghanistan: Taliban

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KABUL, Nov 21 (AFP): The Taliban said NATO was heading for defeat in Afghanistan after the alliance announced plans to begin withdrawing troops from the country from next year.
"It has become clear that after nine years of occupation, the invaders are doomed towards the same fate as those that tread this path before them," the hardline Islamist group said in an emailed statement.
"Their troop surges, their new strategies, their new generals, their new negotiations, and their new propagandas have been of no avail," it added.
NATO leaders meeting in Lisbon earlier pledged to begin the process of handing over responsibility for security to the Afghan police and military from next year, with a view to ceding full control by the end of 2014.
The agreement comes as the 28-member alliance and its 20 partner nations in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) maintain that they are gaining the upper hand in the nine-year conflict.
US President Barack Obama said Saturday the NATO-led allies "are achieving our objective of breaking Taliban momentum" after committing extra resources to the war.
But the Taliban said the withdrawal plans were a sign the 150,000-strong foreign force, which is mostly made up of US troops, had "exhausted" itself and a huge surge of soldiers to tackle Taliban strongholds in the south had failed.
"The White House has determined July 2011 as the deadline to begin withdrawing their defeated invader forces from Afghanistan," the statement said in English.
It added: "What they could not gain in the last few months with their then-fresh troops, they will not be able to gain in Kandahar, with their now demoralised and fearful troops.
"It is becoming manifest that the Americans will not be able to conceal their defeat in Afghanistan for too long.