Washington: Elements of al-Qaida terror network and erstwhile Taleban have reconsolidated in Afghanistan and are increasingly staging attacks from Pakistani sanctuaries, worsening the military and political situation in the war-torn country, a former United States diplomat has said.

According to Edmund McWilliams, a retired US Foreign Service officer who served in the US Embassy in Kabul, warlords in the country will become active in spring, helped by the pro-Taleban parties ruling the Pakistani provinces bordering Afghanistan.

Spring will afford greater mobility, enabling them and allied forces under the command of the radical Pashtun leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to pose still greater threats, McWilliams, who made a private visit to Afghanistan in 2002 and has had discussions with recent visitors, wrote in 'Washington Post'.

The recent electoral triumphs of fundamentalist Muslim parties in the two Pakistani border provinces mean an increasingly hospitable environment for these forces, he said, adding the new "joint regional teams" could be particularly tempting targets.

Meanwhile, Afghan warlords, empowered by collaboration with US forces and enriched by their control of commerce, resumption of the drug trade and ties to foreign patrons, continue to challenge the government of Hamid Karzai, he added.

Facing rapacious warlords, errant attacks by US forces and a deepening impression that an unrepresentative Panjshiri Tajik-dominated regime controls Kabul, Afghans are increasingly disinclined to support the Karzai government or co-operate with US forces, McWilliams said.

PTI