KABUL, March 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Attacks on the US-dominated foreign troops and insurgency has been rapidly going down in the post-Taliban nation, a top military officer of American forces in Afghanistan said Monday.

    "In the spring of 2004 we have experienced about 10 to 15 attacks against the coalition forces per week. And now at this point of time we rarely receive more than five attacks per week,"Eric T. Olson Commanding General of Combined Joint Task Force 76 based in Bagram Airfield claimed here.

    Bagram Airfield, 50 km north of Kabul has been serving as the headquarters of over 18,000 US-led coalition troops in the post-war central Asian state since the collapse of Taliban regime in late 2001.

    He declined to disclose the exact figure of US army's casualties in 2004 or the current year.

    "In terms of number of casualties we suffered, I personally donot count casualties. I do not like to do so," he responded by giving a vague number from 20 to 25.

    More than 130 US soldiers, according to US army officials have been killed since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001.

    In the meantime, sources close to the hard-line Taliban movement put the number of US casualties in the post-Taliban country as high as 1,000.

    The general, whose forces have been mounting pressure on the Taliban operatives, has backed the peaceful reintegration of Taliban to their communities.

    He confirmed that the coalition troops have pardoned 30 middle ranking Taliban leaders who voluntarily laid down their arms, but refused to identify them.

    Taliban's leader Mullah Mohammad Omar who is still at large has repeatedly denounced the amnesty offered by Afghan government as a trick to split the militia group and threatened to fight until the foreign troops leave Afghanistan. Enditem