Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
November 13, 2006
Pg. 6
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents in Afghanistan are carrying out more than 600 attacks a month in a rising wave of violence that has resulted in at least 3,700 deaths in 2006, according to a report released Sunday.
The report by the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board said the monthly number of insurgent attacks has more than doubled in six months. Afghanistan had about 130 insurgent attacks a month last year, the report said.
The board is made up of Afghan and international officials who oversee implementation of the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year reconstruction and development plan.
The total of 3,700 deaths the report attributes to insurgent violence is comparable to the number of deaths — about 3,500 — tallied by the Associated Press this year based on reports from the U.S. military, NATO and Afghan officials.
The violence “threatens to reverse some of the gains made in the recent past, with development activities being especially hard hit in several areas, resulting in partial or total withdrawal of international agencies in a number of the worst-affected provinces,” the report said.
It said the rising drug trade in Afghanistan is helping fuel the insurgency in four volatile southern provinces. Afghanistan's opium poppy crop increased by 59% this year, the report said. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of poppies, the raw material for heroin.
Violence continued over the weekend. Gen. Murad Ali, the deputy Afghan army commander for Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan, said 20 bodies were recovered from fighting in Bermel district in the past several days. In addition, he said, two trucks carrying Taliban fighters were destroyed by airstrikes or artillery fire. Officials estimated 40 fighters were killed in those strikes.
Four NATO soldiers and three Afghan soldiers were injured, he said.
Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for the NATO force in Afghanistan, said the operations in Bermel, which borders Pakistan, were part of an ongoing Afghan-NATO mission to root out Taliban militants before winter.
November 13, 2006
Pg. 6
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents in Afghanistan are carrying out more than 600 attacks a month in a rising wave of violence that has resulted in at least 3,700 deaths in 2006, according to a report released Sunday.
The report by the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board said the monthly number of insurgent attacks has more than doubled in six months. Afghanistan had about 130 insurgent attacks a month last year, the report said.
The board is made up of Afghan and international officials who oversee implementation of the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year reconstruction and development plan.
The total of 3,700 deaths the report attributes to insurgent violence is comparable to the number of deaths — about 3,500 — tallied by the Associated Press this year based on reports from the U.S. military, NATO and Afghan officials.
The violence “threatens to reverse some of the gains made in the recent past, with development activities being especially hard hit in several areas, resulting in partial or total withdrawal of international agencies in a number of the worst-affected provinces,” the report said.
It said the rising drug trade in Afghanistan is helping fuel the insurgency in four volatile southern provinces. Afghanistan's opium poppy crop increased by 59% this year, the report said. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of poppies, the raw material for heroin.
Violence continued over the weekend. Gen. Murad Ali, the deputy Afghan army commander for Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan, said 20 bodies were recovered from fighting in Bermel district in the past several days. In addition, he said, two trucks carrying Taliban fighters were destroyed by airstrikes or artillery fire. Officials estimated 40 fighters were killed in those strikes.
Four NATO soldiers and three Afghan soldiers were injured, he said.
Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for the NATO force in Afghanistan, said the operations in Bermel, which borders Pakistan, were part of an ongoing Afghan-NATO mission to root out Taliban militants before winter.