"Several commanders have been replaced over the past nine years but none was able to even ensure security for Kandahar province," a resident of Kandahar Abdul Manan Khan said.

"Except district headquarters in Kandahar, all the villages are at the hands of Taliban," Manan said.

He also said that Taliban fighters through intimidation and providing rapid justice to feuding sides have earned popularity and rule the vast rural areas.

The former NATO mission commander general McChrystal who earned good reputation in Iraq in a bid to win the war in Afghanistan and more admiration at home had requested for 30,000 troops and White House approved it, bringing the strength of NATO-led troops to some 150,000 by August.

Apparently tired of endemic cat and mouse war in Afghanistan, McChrystal resigned in a critical juncture as several nations within NATO have decided to pull out forces from Afghanistan and the decision doubtlessly to bolster Taliban morale.

Canada has already announced pulling out its troops in 2011.

Following the step, the Netherlands would not extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond 2010.

Acting polish president and presidential candidate Bronislaw Komorowski said last week that Poland would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan in 2012.

Taliban militants in a statement sent to media on Thursday, according to media reports, described the change in war leadership as attempt by U.S. to hide its defeat, saying replacement commanders would make "no difference" and Taliban would continue Jihad (holy war) till the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Owing to the complexity of war in Afghanistan and inflexibility of hardliner Taliban, several more commanders would come and go but the instability would continue for the years to come, many Afghans believe.