Pak's action in Swat has impact in Afghanistan: US commander

"I think, there's a definite impact," Colonel John Spiszer, US Commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry, said.

As a result of the Pakistan's military offensive, Col Spiszer said the activity of the Taliban, in the adjoining border region, has declined. There are also reports of the Taliban finding it difficult to finance the insurgency and buy new weapons.

"What I think is happening is, weapons are drying up. Money is drying up. And there's only so many resources to go around, up in the FATA, to travel over into Afghanistan. If they are having to use them to fight, against the Pakistan military and the Frontier Corps, they certainly aren't of use here," Col Spiszer said.

"We have pretty good evidence that the weapons prices, for instance, have almost doubled. Weapons and ammunition has almost doubled since last summer. So that's a great sign, because there's only so much that they can do, if they can't pay their
fighters, if they can't buy weapons," Col Spiszer said.

"That's one of the big things that's happened in the Korengal Valley (in Afghanistan), is they (Taliban) have got no money. It's hard for them to come across, and it's because of some pretty successful operations that the 1-26 Infantry Blue Spaders have done in the central Kunar," he said.