* Taliban say review aims to create "baseless hope"
* Analysts, aid groups say strategic problems not addressed
* Red Cross warns war entering "murky phase"
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Friday a U.S. Afghan war review was propaganda designed to create "baseless hope", as Afghans, analysts and aid groups warned that U.S. strategy failed to tackle critical problems.
U.S. President Barack Obama&${esc.hash}39;s review, released on Thursday, found NATO-led forces were making headway against the Taliban but serious challenges remained. It said the insurgents&${esc.hash}39; momentum had been arrested in much of Afghanistan and reversed in some areas.
But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called the document a morale-boosting propaganda effort. He said American casualties were rising and nine years of escalating conflict showed increasing troop numbers could not guarantee success.
"The review is aimed at creating baseless hope among nations", he said in an emailed statement.
"The review spoke about success in some unidentified areas, but it is clear to every one that losses among Americans are rising," he said, adding the hardline Islamists would fight until all foreign troops had left Afghanistan.
The review said the United States was on track to begin a gradual withdrawal of its troops -- now numbering about 100,000 in a total foreign force of 150,000 -- from July 2011, after a big military campaign in the Taliban&${esc.hash}39;s southern heartland.
But it comes at the end of the bloodiest year since U.S.-backed Afghan forces ousted the Taliban in 2001, with almost 700 foreign soldiers killed, two-thirds of them American. Civilian casualties are also at record levels.
Norine MacDonald, Afghanistan-based head of policy research group the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS), said escalating violence made the target date to start drawing down troops "a political aspiration".
"This short document itself concedes that what gains we see can be counted as fragile and reversible," she told Reuters.
Afghan politicians, analysts and aid groups working in the country also warned Washington&${esc.hash}39;s review had a narrow focus on military gains and did not substantively address some of the conflict&${esc.hash}39;s drivers, including insurgent havens in Pakistan, widespread corruption and poor governance.
"The problem is not with the tactics, the problem is with the strategy, with the overall vision in this country and in the region," said Fawzia Kufi, an outspoken member of parliament from Badakhshan province in Afghanistan&${esc.hash}39;s northeast.
CORRUPTION, CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama&${esc.hash}39;s key ally in the war, did not rate a mention in the publicly released document. The two men have had sometimes-tense relations and critics accuse Karzai of failing to clamp down on corruption and improve governance.
By Friday morning, there had been no reaction to the review from the presidential palace, although a spokesman said before its release Obama had telephoned Karzai to discuss its findings.
The flaws in the government he heads have been highlighted by critics as a major obstacle to ending the conflict, with a lack of justice for ordinary people eroding military gains, a report from British think tank Chatham House said on Thursday.
Afghans who lose their land to corrupt officials, see family members detained without cause, or suffer as their tribal group is excluded from power by better connected rivals are joining or supporting the Taliban in response, the report said.
"Justice and rule of law cannot be dismissed as just matters of morality and human rights. They are critical issues of strategic self-interest," said co-author Stephen Carter.
On Wednesday, the ICRC said in a rare public statement that worsening violence was making it harder than at any time in the past three decades for aid groups to reach those in need.
The ICRC had already made it clear it disagreed with Washington&${esc.hash}39;s findings that progress was being made.
"We seem to be entering a more and more murky phase of the conflict," Bijan Farnoudi, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, told Reuters.
He said more and more armed groups were emerging, some associated with the insurgency, some with the government and others with criminal groups.
"We&${esc.hash}39;re worried about more displacement, we&${esc.hash}39;re worried about more civilian casualties, we&${esc.hash}39;re worried about more difficulties with people to access healthcare," he said. (Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Robert Birsel) (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
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