Surge in attacks prompts concern in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been hit by a surge in attacks that show more skill and planning than routine Taliban violence, suggesting the influence of more hardened militants, perhaps from Iraq, analysts say.
The spike has raised alarm, with Afghan officials accusing neighbouring Pakistan of being an "exporter of terrorism" and US presidential hopeful Barack Obama saying more troops and equipment should be sent to battle the militants.
"We see the regular type of attacks by the Taliban but also a number that are different, which require a high level of planning and execution," said analyst Haroun Mir from the Afghanistan Centre for Research and Policy Studies.
"This is something that should be a cause of concern to everyone."
An attack on Sunday on a remote military outpost left nine US soldiers dead -- the highest number of foreign soldiers to die in a single battle since international troops invaded to oust the Taliban regime in late 2001.
A suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul a week ago was the deadliest to hit the city with around 60 people killed, including two senior Indian diplomats.
In June the Taliban staged a spectacular jailbreak in the southern city of Kandahar, and two months earlier President Hamid Karzai survived an assassination attempt at Afghanistan's largest annual military parade.
"They are outpacing the Iraq insurgents," Mir told AFP. "In the first couple of years they were not so sophisticated. Now they are different -- it shows the involvement of al-Qaeda.”
The Taliban had previously avoided confronting the international forces in conventional battle because of their superior fire power, relying instead on bomb attacks, he said.
But this was not the case in Sunday's assault on the small Nato force outpost in mountainous northeastern Kunar province, a "favourite frontline" for Arab fighters during the resistance to the Soviet occupation of the 1980s.
"It is possible that Arab fighters are quitting Iraq and coming to Afghanistan," Mir said. There also appeared to be involvement of "rogue elements" from Pakistan's intelligence agency, like retired officers.
Karzai and his government have directly accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence of a role, particularly in the blast on the embassy of India -- a friend to Kabul but foe to Islamabad.
"The murder, killing, destruction, dishonouring and insecurity in Afghanistan is carried out by the intelligence administration of Pakistan, its military intelligence institutions," Karzai charged Monday.
Pakistan has hotly rejected accusations that it is supporting the insurgents, saying it is doing what it can to stop them.
Afghan officials have in particular spoken out against Pakistan's peace talks with extremist militants on its soil who, despite the government discussions, have said they would continue "jihad" (holy war) in Afghanistan.
Captain Mike Finney, spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force, said the talks had seen some increase in attacks on this side of the porous border.
But "traditionally fighting levels go up in the summer due to longer days and because the terrain is easier to cover," he told AFP.
Also, "we are in more places, we have got more troops on the ground than last year. There are more ANA (Afghan National Army) who are qualified and they are out and about. This means we are in more contact with the insurgents."
Finney said there were however also signs of "greater planning" going into the attacks, apparently with "appalling" disregard for potential civilian casualties.
Democratic candidate Obama said in the New York Times on Monday that the country needs more help. The United States should deploy about 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan as it downscales in Iraq, he said.
Nearly 70,000 international troops, the bulk of them Americans, are in Afghanistan to help the Western-backed government fight the insurgency.
"We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there," he said.
"Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been.”