''The Taliban and Al Qaeda feel that this is their final chance to impede Afghanistan's progress to . . . becoming a nation," Kamiya said. ''They will challenge us all the way through Sept. 18."
He said the rebels were desperately trying to recruit fighters to replace those killed recently, and have forced families in some areas ''to give up one son to fight."
''They have been hit so hard, they now have to recruit more fighters. They are recruiting younger and younger fighters: 14, 15, and 16 years old," Kamiya said. ''The enemy is having a hard time keeping its recruit rates up."
The rebels have long been thought to have children in their ranks, but there have been few reports of wide-scale child recruiting by the Taliban, especially of those as young as 14.
Kamiya's comments were made two days after the United Nations said the majority of an estimated 8,000 child soldiers in Afghanistan -- mostly in the ranks of private militias now allied with the government -- would have been demobilized and enrolled in education programs by the end of this year.
The effort has focused largely on areas outside the country's southern and eastern regions, where the Taliban were strongest.
Afghan officials repeatedly have said that many of the Taliban's fighters come from Islamic boarding schools, or madrassas, in Pakistan. But Kamiya said the Taliban were now getting most of their new recruits from inside Afghanistan.
He said part of the reason the rebels have suffered such unprecedented losses recently was that they have been caught gathering in large groups three times since April and pounded by airstrikes and ground forces. About 170 suspected insurgents were killed in a weeklong battle in June in a mountainous militant hideout.
''There is no [rebel] organizational chain of command . . . because we have succeeded thus far in disrupting their means to regroup and conduct a coordinated attack," Kamiya said. ''They can no longer move around with impunity."
