The tempo of targeted attacks on the Taliban leadership has dramatically increased in the past months. Though the British and Americans have presented the recent assassinations of top leaders of the Taliban to show that their policy of "decapitating" the enemy leadership is working, security sources said that factions with the Taliban are using Western forces to eliminate rival chieftains in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Not all of the intelligence we are getting is being given for altruistic reasons. The Taliban movement is pretty amorphous and we are aware that different groupings appear to be passing on information," said a senior Western official, who deals with both Nato and Afghan forces on security matters.
"There appears to be a power struggle going on in the insurgent leadership across the [Pakistan] border and we are also aware that certain official bodies have their own agendas and that is reflected in what they tell us," he was quoted as saying by The Independent newspaper today.
Security sources said "hits" on the Taliban leadership have almost all been based on initial intelligence provided from within the insurgency, although details of the movements of some senior insurgents have also been traced from intercepted telephone calls.
