U. S., NATO deaths in Afghanistan pass Iraq toll for 2nd month in row
KABUL, Afghanistan — Militants killed more U. S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline- grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban’s growing strength.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has noted that more international troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May, the first time that had happened. While that trend — now two months old — is in part due to falling violence in Iraq, it also reflects rising violence here.
At least 45 international troops — including 27 Americans and 13 Britons — died in Afghanistan in June, the deadliest month since the 2001 U. S.- led invasion to oust the ruling Taliban militia.
In Iraq, at least 31 international soldiers died in June, including 29 U. S. troops and one each from the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan. About 144,000 U. S. troops are in Iraq, along with 4,000 British forces and small contingents from other nations.
The 40-nation international coalition is much broader in Afghanistan, where only about half of the 65,000 international troops are American.
That record number of international troops in Afghanistan means that more soldiers are exposed to danger than ever before. But Taliban attacks have become more complex and, in June, more deadly.
A gun and bomb attack last week in Ghazni province blasted a U. S. Humvee, killing three U. S. soldiers and an Afghan interpreter. It was the fourth attack of the month against troops that killed four people.
“I think possibly we’ve reached a turning point,” said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. “Insurgents now are more active, more organized, and the political environment, whether in Pakistan or Afghanistan, favors insurgent activities.”
U. S. commanders have blamed Pakistani efforts to negotiate peace deals for the spike in cross-border attacks, though an initial deal with militants has begun to fray and security forces recently launched a limited crackdown in the semiautonomous tribal belt where the Taliban and al-Qaida operate with increasing freedom.
U. S. Ambassador William B. Wood said that violence is up because Taliban fighters are increasingly using terrorist tactics but added that there is no indication that the fighters can hold territory.
U. S.-led forces backed by warplanes battled militants Sunday in southwestern Afghanistan, killing 28 rebels including several Taliban commanders, an Afghan official said Monday.
NATO said it killed several more insurgents Monday in coordination with Pakistani forces along the mountainous border, while three troops from the U. S.-led coalition died Sunday when their vehicle rolled into a riverbed while they were patrolling in Arghandab, a valley in Kandahar province that foreign and Afghan forces recently retook from the Taliban.
In Pakistan, an explosion wrecked a pro-Taliban militant compound Monday, killing as many as eight people. The militants targeted by the Pakistani paramilitary forces’ offensive in the Khyber tribal area claimed a missile was fired from nearby Afghanistan, but a Pentagon official said he knew of no cross-border attack, and a Pakistani officer said that stored explosives blew up.
