KABUL - The Taliban insurgents are "clearly losing" the fight in Afghanistan, ISAF spokesman General Gunter Katz said Sunday, responding to comments from an aide of President Hamid Karzai that the Americans are losing the war.

"We are quite successful, we are fighting them. They are clearly losing that fight," Katz said in an interview with TOLOnews.

"Our campaign is on track. We keep on pressuring them, we fight them in the areas that used to be safe havens – we are fighting them outside of the cities today. If you look at some areas, most of them are almost clear of fighting and 80 percent of all the fighting takes place where 20 percent of the population is living, so the majority of your country really enjoys peace and stability," he added.

"Yes, there are still some fights going on but this is only in a small area and we are confident that by the end of 2014 will be able to hand over your very well-trained and well-equipped Afghan National Security Forces," he added.

Karzai's chief of staff Abdul Karim Khuram recently told the Wall St Journal that US efforts in the past 11 years have been counterproductive and the Taliban, which had once almost vanished, has revived.

He said Karzai also remained skeptical over the creation of the 352,000 security force because such a large number will cost billions of dollars a year which will perpetuate the dependency of Afghanistan on foreign funding. (Tolo News)