Taliban set to ramp up bomb attacks in spring, NATO spokesman says

[Purveyor]

By Associated Press

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO-led forces will face ”hard fighting” this spring in Afghanistan’s volatile south and west, where the Taliban is gearing up for increased suicide and roadside bomb attacks, an alliance spokesman said Wednesday.

The insurgents will focus their efforts on reducing Afghans’ support for their government, said Col. Tom Collins, spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

”The enemy is making preparations to ramp up their activities in the spring,” Collins told reporters, noting that such an increase in attacks has been a trend in recent years as the harsh winter weather breaks and snows melt on mountain passes used by militants.

---snip---

This month, the Afghan government has lost control of two district centers at Musa Qala in Helmand province and briefly at Bakwa in Farah province. Afghan police and soldiers, backed by NATO, retook Bakwa without resistance on Tuesday, but Musa Qala remains under militant control.

---end of excerpt---

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/middleEast/view.bg?articleid=184162

[redqueen]

1. If the invasion of Iraq was the biggest foreign-policy mistake in US history...

I wonder where the decision to repeat Russia's mistake ranks.

[acmavm]

2. It's up there in the top five, that's for sure. Putin tried to warn

Chimpy. But then, everyone tries to warn Chimpy.

[Purveyor]

3. I could swear I remember hearing Cheney say we had 'defeated' the Taliban

a couple years ago.