 photo: AP |
Minister Hanif Atmar dismissed the strength of the insurgents, saying that a wave of high-profile attacks showed the desperation of the Taliban movement which was ousted from power in a US-led offensive in 2001.
Mr Atmar, in Washington for a three-way dialogue with the US and Pakistan on a new "war on terror" strategy, said that Taliban insurgents were still operating in up to 17 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
"In terms of numbers, there could be between 10 and 15,000 Taliban insurgents," he said.
Afghan authorities rarely give hard figures for the number of Taliban, saying that it is hard to define the movement.
Mr Atmar said most of the insurgents were foreigners operating with Al-Qaeda or Central Asian extremist groups. He said many Afghans were recruited for economic reasons and that he did not consider them dye-in-the-wool Taliban.
US President Barack Obama has identified fighting extremism in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan - where militants enjoy virtual safe havens in lawless border areas - as a key foreign policy goal.
President Obama, who has announced he will pull out most troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010, is sending 1700 more troops to Afghanistan.
On February 11, the Taliban carried out simultaneous attacks on three government offices in Kabul that left 26 people dead as well as eight of the attackers.
"These terrorist attacks do not represent their strength but indeed their weakness," Mr Atmar said.
"The fact that they don't care about their image is a significant indication of their hopelessness," he said.
"They are still capable of threatening the lives of the Afghan people but that does not mean that they can derail the (reconstruction) process or challenge the government of Afghanistan," he said.
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