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WASHINGTON-The Taliban has regrouped after its initial fall from power in Afghanistan and the pace of its attacks is likely to increase this year, according to a Pentagon report that offers a dim view of progress in the nearly seven-year-old war.Noting that insurgent violence has climbed, the report said that despite U.S. and coalition efforts to capture and kill key leaders, the Taliban is likely to "maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008."The Taliban, it said, has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency."At the same time, the Afghan Army and national police are progressing slowly and still lack the trainers they need.The report was released Friday along with a separate plan for the development of Afghan security forces. They are the first two comprehensive Pentagon reports to evaluate progress in Afghanistan.Vast problems-corruption, the illegal poppy trade, human rights abuses and slow progress in reconstruction-were detailed, as well as the struggle to train and equip the Afghan Army and police.The report described a dual terror threat in Afghanistan that includes the Taliban in the south, and "a more complex, adaptive insurgency" in the east.That fragmented insurgency is made up of groups ranging from al-Qaida and Afghan warlords such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's radical Hezb-i-Islami group to Pakistani militants such as Jaish-e-Mohammed.Insurgents will continue to challenge the government in southern and eastern Afghanistan, and the may also move to increase their power in the north and west, the report predicted.The assessment was bluntly pessimistic as it described efforts to train the Army and police.As in the days of Noah....
