WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The Taliban in Afghanistan are expected to return this spring, relying more on indirect methods such as assassination teams, a top U.S. commander said.
"Yes. Assassination hit teams, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), indirect things. They will not be as direct in their confrontations as they were last year, I believe," Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, told reporters Tuesday at the Pentagon.
The general said the international forces, along with their Afghan counterparts, are "conducting shaping operations to make the environment of the enemy much more inhospitable than it was last year."
In reply to a question, Rodriguez said the Taliban are not "on the ropes yet."
He said his forces will continue to support the building of local governance that serves people.
"Our challenge is to help the Afghans, as they increasingly take the lead, make this progress durable," he said.
Rodriguez spoke about the need for Canada's military to go after insurgents hiding in North Waziristan.
"And again, we need them to do more. We're going to encourage them to do more because that makes it easier on what we're doing," he said. "But I think it's still doable without them, you know, decreasing what they've been doing the past year, which is significant, again.
"That's not a mission stopper in my mind," he said. "And again, everybody, whether it be the Pakistani leadership, the U.S. leadership or the international leadership, is all focused on that issue now about Pakistan and encouraging them to do more and we are, too."
