Al-Qaeda pressurising Taliban: Official

Governor of Kandahar province said Al-Qaeda is pressuring the Taliban to capture some ground to claim their active presence.

An upsurge in violence in Afghanistan over the past week was the result of pressure on the Taliban from Al-Qaeda and other supporters, a provincial governor said citing Afghan intelligence.

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This included Al-Qaeda and other militants based in neighbouring Pakistan, said Asadullah Khalid, Governor of Kandahar province.

"Al-Qaeda and certain countries were pressuring the Taliban to capture some ground, particularly in Kandahar, to claim their active presence," the governor said, citing Afghan intelligence presented to him.

"The latest violence was more than the insurgency," Khalid said on Thursday.

Afghan officials regularly say that the Taliban-linked insurgency is plotted by leaders of the movement who fled across the border into Pakistan with their Al-Qaeda allies when the Taliban government was toppled in 2001.