Taliban forces fighting US troops in Afghanistan have grown stronger and more sophisticated, and are directing operations from neighbouring Pakistan, a senior US commander said on Wednesday. More than four years into the war in Afghanistan, an operation often overshadowed by the focus on Iraq, the top US commander there said the Taliban has grown in the south and reconstituted itself elsewhere. It is displaying better military command and its leaders remain elusive, he said. “The fact remains that we’re up against an enemy that is able to operate very effectively on both sides of the border,” Lt Gen Karl Eikenberry said in testimony to US lawmakers. “There are areas that they’re able to stay within and to direct combat operations against ourselves and against the Afghan National Army.” Despite growing violence funded, US officials say, by drug money, NATO will take over military operations in southern Afghanistan in July, according to Mary Beth Long, the Defense Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for international security affairs. Ultimately, NATO rather than the United States will play the lead military role throughout Afghanistan. Long did not offer lawmakers a timeline, saying NATO would take full responsibility when conditions were “right.” The planned transition to NATO’s military leadership will allow the United States to bring home some of its 23,000 troops in Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesman said. But in his public testimony, which preceded a closed-door classified briefing to lawmakers, Eikenberry did not discuss troop levels or offer a timeline for their drawdown.