KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO forces are putting more trained Afghan troops on the front lines and plan “rolling operations” against Taliban insurgents who are intensifying their attacks but remain unable to mount territory-seizing offensives, military officers say.
Still, there’s little prospect the suffering of combatants or civilians will abate. Violence has left more than 1,000 people dead in the first four months of 2007, according to statistics compiled by the Associated Press.
A roadside bomb killed seven Afghan soldiers in a military convoy Wednesday.
There’s twofold optimism for the military campaign in the months ahead: that large-scale operations against the Taliban’s southern strongholds have blunted what appeared to be a drive to seize vital terrain, and that the Afghan National Army is crystalizing into an effective force.
“We’re cynical about the so-called spring offensive. It may happen, but so far we haven’t seen one,” said British Squadron Leader David Marsh, NATO’s spokesman in the south. “We’ve had a winter campaign to knock off what they might be able to do in the spring.”
Yet, in a sign the conflict is deepening, the casualty figures on all sides for the first four months of the year are sharply up.
With the annual fighting season scarcely begun, at least 320 Afghan civilians and military and about 680 militants have been killed so far in 2007, according to figures compiled by AP from Afghan, NATO and U.S. officials.
That combined toll of 1,000 is more than double the total fatalities for the first four months of 2006.
The number of coalition and NATO soldiers killed has risen to 39 in 2007, from 15 during the same period of 2006.
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