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Taliban ups suicide attacks
08/10/2006 21:54 - (SA)
Kabul - Nato's top commander in Afghanistan said on Sunday the country was at a tipping point and warned Afghans would likely switch their allegiance to resurgent Taliban militants if there were visible improvements in people's lives in the next six months.
General David Richards, a British officer who commands Nato's 32 000 troops here, warned in an interview with The Associated Press that if life didn't get better over the winter, about 70% of Afghans could switch sides.
Taliban militants have launched 78 suicide attacks across Afghanistan this year, killing close to 200 people.
Violence has increased sharply across Afghanistan the last several months and the Taliban has acknowledged adopting the suicide bombings and remote-controlled attacks commonly used by insurgents in Iraq.
Analyst Seth Jones said there had been an "extraordinary change" in the lethality of attacks in Afghanistan in 2006, indicating that militants were using "more sophisticated" techniques.
"There have been more suicide attacks in Afghanistan in 2006 than in the entire history of the country combined," Jones said.
There were only two suicide attacks in 2003 and six in 2004, said Jones. He said there were 21 in 2005.
Nato said it had detained 10 would-be suicide bombers.
This was in addition to 17 would-be bombers that Afghanistan's intelligence agency said it had arrested.
- AP
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