Afghanistan roadside attacks soar

Published on Saturday 19 June 2010 20:35

A UN report yesterday painted a grim picture of security in Afghanistan, saying roadside bombings and assassinations have soared amid ramped-up military operations in the Taleban-dominated south.

The United Nations' findings appeared to be at odds with Pentagon assertions last week claiming slow but steady progress in Afghanistan – an assessment challenged by US politicians during hearings on Capitol Hill.

The report, which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon submitted to the UN Security Council, said Afghanistan's overall security situation "has not improved" since his last report in March.

Roadside bombings in the first four months of 2010 rose by 94 per cent compared with the same period of 2009, and assassinations of Afghan officials jumped 45 per cent, mostly in the ethnic Pashtun south, which has become the focus of the war, the report said.

Suicide attacks occurred at a rate of about three per week, half in the south. The increase in complex attacks – using a combination of suicide bombers and small-arms fire – pointed to Taleban groups linked with al-Qaeda, the report said.

The study found some encouraging signs, however, including the government's plan to reach out to insurgents and offer economic incentives to leave the battlefield. It also said the UN was working with Afghan officials to prepare for parliamentary elections in September.

Nevertheless, the UN found the number of security incidents had "increased significantly compared to previous years", largely because of more military operations in the south early this year.

Nato spokesman Brigadier General Josef Blotz yesterday said that despite negative assessments, the international force was making steady progress.

He said: "Tough fighting is expected to continue, but the situation is trending in our favour as more forces flow into the area."

Blotz said joint Nato and Afghan forces were stepping up the pace of identifying and killing those responsible for attacks.

Insurgent commanders were being apprehended by coalition forces, which over time would disrupt the ability to organise suicide and roadside bomb attacks.

"It has to be tougher perhaps before it goes easier."

Blotz said the number of civilians killed or wounded in operations involving the international force dropped by 44.4 per cent in the past 12 weeks, compared with the same period in 2009.

"In the same period of time, the number of civilian casualties caused by the insurgency increased by 36 per cent," Blotz said.

Two Afghan civilians were killed on Friday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Marjah district of Helmand province, according to the Afghan interior ministry.

In a separate incident three Afghan soldiers were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb in Paktia province in south-eastern Afghanistan, according to the deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Dastagir.

Blotz blamed the Taleban for a bombing that killed 40 people at a wedding in south Afghanistan last week, though the insurgent group denied responsibility.

"There is better training and education," Blotz said.

"And there are a couple of ongoing programmes, for example, in the area of escalation of force procedures, because these contacts in the past were one of the major sources, if I may say so, of civilian casualties."

Winning over civilians while reinforcing and stepping up military sweeps of Taleban-held areas is a centrepiece of the strategy formed over the past year by US General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan.

But casualties among the US and Nato force are also on the rise this month as thousands of reinforcements stream into Afghanistan – part of President Barack Obama's plan to try to stem the rise of the Taleban.

Five Nato troops including three Americans and one Briton died in fighting last Friday, raising this month's death toll among international forces to 53. Britain's death toll now stands at 299 since operations began.

June is shaping up to be one of the deadliest months for US troops in the nearly nine-year-old Afghan war, as insurgents step up attacks in response to a Nato push into Taleban strongholds in the south.

The deadliest month for US troops in Afghanistan was October 2009, when 59 Americans died. The deadliest of the war for the entire international force was July 2009 when 75 troops, including 44 Americans, were killed.

Despite the violence, US defence secretary Robert Gates insisted last Wednesday the US-led force was making progress. He complained about negative perceptions in Washington. "I think that we are regaining the initiative," Gates told a Senate panel in Washington. "I think that we are making headway."

Meanwhile, the relative of a former mujahedeen commander who battled the Soviets was killed in southern Kandahar province. Hamayun Khan was fatally shot outside his home on Friday night, according to Kandahar Police Chief Sher Mohammed Zazai.

Khan was related to Gul Alai, a major construction contractor in Kandahar who also once served as chief of intelligence in the southern city.