KABUL: An upsurge in insurgent violence in Afghanistan and deepening public frustration is eating away at domestic support for internationally-backed President Hamid Karzai, analysts say.

Five years after the fall of the hardline Taliban government, the insurgency is only more bloody and is undermining the authority of Karzai’s government which is propped up by international funds and security forces.

The May 29 riots that shook Kabul pointed to growing frustration, with some of the demonstrators chanting “Death to Karzai” and attacking images of him.

A series of minor bomb blasts in the city last week appeared intended to deepen a feeling of instability, although security officials have cast doubt on the Taliban’s claim of responsibility.

With anger increasingly directed at the man who won 55 per cent of Afghanistan’s first presidential vote in 2004, there is more and more talk of opposition groups aligning themselves into new political fronts against him.

Only his international support is guaranteeing his position, says political analyst Waheed Mujda.

“There’s no doubt Karzai has lost his popularity due to many reasons: intensified fighting in the south, corruption and poverty that the ordinary people are fighting with.

“If you put all these together, then you can say he is in a very fragile position that may cost him dearly — maybe even his government,” he told AFP.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a big show of support for the 49-year-old president during a fleeting visit last month, describing him as a man of courage and wisdom admired around the world.

But should the international community “crutch” be taken away, “then he is over,” Mujda said.

Karzai, who was little known before he was appointed interim leader soon after the Taliban were driven out in late 2001, could today summon little support in the Pashtu-dominated south from where he hails and which has been particularly hard-hit by the insurgency.

He has never had much backing in the Uzbek and Tajik-dominated north of the ethnically riven nation. “Karzai did get a mandate from the people and I don’t think he always remembers that,” political analyst Joanna Nathan said.—AFP