Afghan war tougher than we thought: CIA chief

The Afghan war is tougher than anticipated, the head of the CIA admitted Sunday, adding that it t has been years since the United States has had good intelligence on the whereabouts of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin laden.

"There are some serious problems here," Leon Panetta, installed last year as President Barack Obama's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief, told the ABC network's "This Week" program.

"We're dealing with a tribal society. We're dealing with a country that has problems with governance, problems with corruption, problems with narcotics trafficking, problems with a Taliban insurgency."

"We are making progress. It's harder, it's slower than I think anyone anticipated."

Emboldened perhaps by divisions in the U.S. war effort exposed by the sacking this week of Afghan commander General Stanley McChrystal, Taliban attacks are on the rise -- a fact Panetta did not attempt to hide.

"I think the Taliban obviously is engaged in greater violence right now. They're doing more on IED's (improvised explosive devices). They're going after our troops. There's no question about that."

We are making progress. It's harder, it's slower than I think anyone anticipated

CIA chief Leon Panetta

Meanwhile, Panetta added that it has been years since the United States has had good intelligence on the whereabouts of A- Qaeda leader bin laden, although he is thought to be in Pakistan.

Not since "the early 2000s" have U.S. officials had "the last precise information about where he (bin Laden) might be located," Panetta said.

"Since then, it's been very difficult to get any intelligence on his exact location," Panetta said. "He is, as is obvious, in very deep hiding ... He's in an area of the tribal areas of Pakistan."

Denying the world's most wanted man safe haven on the lawless Afghanistan-Pakistan border has been an aim of Western policy since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, when the Taliban in effect spurned a U.S. demand to hand over the al-Qaeda chief.

He is, as is obvious, in very deep hiding ... He's in an area of the tribal areas of Pakistan

CIA chief Leon Panetta

'Moving in the right direction'

Panetta said the United States still believed it could ultimately "flush out" bin Laden, noting it had already "taken down" more than half of al-Qaeda's leadership.

In recent months, the CIA has ramped up the pace of unmanned drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan that border Afghanistan, targeting not only high-level al-Qaeda and Taliban targets but unknown foot soldiers as well.

Taliban militants, Panetta said, "with regards to some of the directed violence, they seem to be stronger. But the fact is, we are undermining their leadership and that I think is moving in the right direction."