BUSY IN IRAQ, US FORCES FACE SURGING VIOLENCE IN AFGHANISTAN

WASHINGTON — While America's attention remains focused on Iraq, violence is escalating in Afghanistan, worrying senior U.S. defense officials and commanders who're struggling to find some 7,000 more American and European troops to combat resurgent Taliban and al Qaida forces.

By Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/33799.html

There are indications that Islamic militants may have adopted a new strategy of avoiding U.S and NATO forces and staging attacks in provinces that haven't seen major unrest and on easy targets such as aid organizations and poorly trained Afghan police.

A roadside bomb reportedly killed two policemen and injured three Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, a day after insurgents killed 11 police officers.

A majority of America's NATO allies continue to balk at U.S. requests to send thousands more of their troops to Afghanistan. At the same time, the renewed violence in Iraq and the White House decision to suspend further American troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer will make it harder for the Pentagon to send more American forces to Afghanistan next year as President Bush has promised.

"I'm deeply concerned," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last Thursday. "In this economy of force operation, we do what we can. Requirements exist that we simply cannot fill and won't likely be able to fill until conditions improve in Iraq."

Some 3,500 additional U.S. Marines will be deployed to Afghanistan.

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