Monday, August 10, 2009 KABUL: The Taliban are advancing out of traditional strongholds in Afghanistan's south and east into the north and west, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in the country said in an interview published on Monday. U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, who will soon present an assessment of the war, said the resurgent Taliban would force a change of tactics on foreign forces and warned that record casualty figures would remain high for some months. "It's a very aggressive enemy right now," McChrystal told The Wall Street Journal newspaper in an interview in Kabul. "We've got to stop their momentum, stop their initiative. It's hard work." Violence across Afghanistan this year had already reached its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-led Afghan forces in 2001 and escalated dramatically after major offensives were launched in the south over the past two months. With thousands of U.S. Marines and British soldier...
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