Taliban surge expected to continue KABUL - In the latest in a series of dramatic Taliban attacks across Afghanistan, a team of seven heavily armed fighters staged a bold raid on NATO's operational headquarters at the Kabul airport Monday before being fought off and killed by Afghan security forces. The incident served as an example of what coalition and Afghan military officials say is the Taliban's renewed determination to carry out nationwide attacks well after their annual spring offensive, in a bid to disrupt plans for next year's national elections and expose Afghan security forces as incapable of defending the country ahead of the withdrawal of most NATO troops by the end of 2014. As the Afghan military attempts to prove its own strength without American combat support, the Tangi Valley appeared to be the perfect mission - a chance to do what the U.S. military could not. Pamela Constable Attacks are likely to continue despite insurgency's failure to expand sway and its loss of high-level fighters. Michael Birnbaum German Chancellor Angela Merkel vows to raise topic when she meets with President Obama next week. Ben Van Heuvelen and Patrick Osgood A brigade that was once a symbol of cooperation between Iraq's rival ethnic groups has divided in two. Pakistani president urges continued fight against militants; Turkish premier to meet with protesters. Sudarsan Raghavan Islamist fighters gun down teachers and students in broad daylight, and classrooms become ghost towns. But the raid's failure also highlighted the Taliban's inability to represent a major threat to the Afghan state, according to military officials. They say that the insurgents control little populated territory in few regions and have not been able to expand that sway and that Afghanistan's fledgling security forces are increasingly able to defeat them. In a statement issued a week ago, a NATO coalition spokesman, Col. Thomas W. Collins, said the Taliban "simply do not have the manpower, capability or coherence in command and control to be considered a strategic threat." Assessing the potency of the shifting and elusive organization is difficult, however. Afghan and coalition military officials acknowledge that they do not know how large the Taliban's fighting force is, but analysts say it is easily able to recruit foot soldiers and fund itself through extortion. And although Afghan security forces have been able to combat Taliban attacks in urban areas, they are far more vulnerable in rural regions, where they are losing air backup and other international support. Several Afghan officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, agree that the insurgents probably cannot defeat the much larger government forces. But the officials said that the greatest threat to Afghanistan's future is not the strength of the insurgency but the weakness and corruption of the government, which has caused some Afghans to turn to the Taliban for security and justice. We don't fear the enemy. We don't need better equipment and technology, because those are things they don't have. What we need is a stronger and better government," one Afghan military official said. People are dissatisfied with all the corruption, and there are splits even among our officers. We can't afford to split into factions. This is very worrisome. Fighting to free our country In recent weeks, unusually ambitious insurgent attacks have stunned residents and international workers in Afghanistan. One assault team occupied a building in downtown Kabul used by an international refugee agency, setting off a five-hour gun battle. Another breached a government compound in Panjshir province, considered one of the safest areas in the country. In an especially surprising incident, a suicide and commando squad attacked a provincial office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a group that observes a strict neutrality in conflicts, visits detainees on both sides and has helped maintain communication between imprisoned Afghan insurgents and their families. No group asserted responsibility for that attack, but Afghan security sources said the tactics were similar to those often used by the Taliban.