Kabul, 20 June (AKI) - The Taliban remains a strong threat in southern Afghanistan despite claims by NATO and government officials that insurgents were driven out of areas near the city of Kandahar on Thursday.

Two senior Afghan journalists told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Friday's suicide attack in southern Afghanistan is a clear sign that the region remains a Taliban stronghold and there were fears that security is deteriorating.

"I think it would be over-optimistic to think that an operation by international forces and the Afghan government would mean a defeat for the Taliban in the region," said Barry Salaam, chief editor of the Good Morning Afghanistan radio programme in an interview with AKI.

Salaam was referring to the two-day operation by Afghan and NATO forces against Taliban fighters who had seized several villages in the Arghandab district on the outskirts of Kandahar city.

NATO said on Thursday that the Taliban had been successfully driven from all the villages and a day later, a suicide bomber killed at least five civilians and a coalition soldier in a suicide attack in neighbouring Helmand province. Two of the victims were children.

Salaam said that the Taliban is so deeply rooted in Helmand, parts of Kandahar and Zabul provinces that Friday's attack was a reminder that even though there are large scale operations, "they can still continue with normal bombings."

"That's part of their overall strategy that they are present at all times in these regions," he told AKI.

This view was also shared by Saheem Dashty, the chief editor of the Kabul Weekly newspaper.

"This [suicide attack] is a reaction of the Taliban, to show that they are still active, that the defeat in Arghandab is not very important," Dashty told AKI.

Both journalists said that ordinary Afghans are afraid and worried that these attacks are occuring more than seven years after US-led coalition forces removed the hard-line Taliban movement from power.

"When all the international forces are in the region, you should see some positive change and yet we can't see it and this is worrying everyone here," Salaam told AKI.

The Kabul-based journalist said that last Friday's jailbreak in Kandahar city in which about 400 Taliban prisoners escaped, was "very alarming and a sign that the situation is deteriorating". The jailbreak came just before the Taliban took control of the villages in Arghandab district.

"They could not have done that without long-term planning, without local support in the prison itself," Salaam said.

"It shows that the foreign forces and the Afghan government are losing control."

The reporters also accused neighbouring Pakistan of not doing enough to stop the influx of the Taliban and other insurgents into the country.

"There is a fear among Afghans that the Pakistani government is not stopping the Taliban from crossing into Afghanistan [to carry out attacks]," Dashty told AKI.

On Sunday, Afghan president Hamid Karzai threatened to send troops over the border into Pakistan to confront the militants based there.

Pakistan for its part has warned Afghanistan from interfering in its internal affairs and says that there has to be a new approach to stopping attacks on both sides.

"Karzai's speech was supported in Afghanistan, not because Afghans support Karzai but because the people have suffered from Pakistan's policies for decades," said Dashty.

"The Taliban have a retreating base on Pakistan soil and that is making it difficult to deal with them in Afghanistan," echoed Salaam.

Salaam said what was necessary was a true commitment from the international community to solve the problem, also within Pakistan.

He also said that it was necessary for the world to remember that the Taliban claimed to be an Islamic movement and that was not true.

"Taking an innocent's life in Islam is like killing the whole of humanity," he said referring to the civilians who were killed in Friday's attack.

"This is against Islam."