Taliban attacks will increase: US commander

The incoming commander of US troops in Afghanistan said today he expects Taliban militants to launch more suicide attacks this year than in 2006, when militants set off a record 139 suicide bombs.

Maj. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said military leaders expect an increase in all kinds of attacks as the weather gets warmer.

“We are expecting an increase in the suicide bombings and some of the other tactics that they have believed are successful, but which have got a lot of negative effects for them also,” he said.

Rodriguez, who takes command of US forces in Afghanistan from Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley on Friday, travelled to the eastern province of Paktika next to the Pakistan border today to get briefed by military leaders and the provincial governor.

Paktika Gov. Mohammed Akram Akhpelwak told Rodriguez that Taliban militants have bases across the border in Pakistan and that he hopes US forces can help stop the flow of fighters crossing into Paktika.

“If we just focus on one side of the border, we won’t be successful,” Akhpelwak told US leaders.

Earlier, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai renewed his call for talks with Taliban and other groups battling his government.

“While we are fighting for our honour and dignity against an enemy who wants our destruction and wants us to bleed, once again we want to open a way for negotiations,” Karzai told thousands gathered at the main Shia Muslim mosque in Kabul.

Karzai’s call for talks with the resurgent Taliban militants comes at a time when US, Nato and other Western officials warn of Taliban spring offensive, following the bloodiest year since the former hard-line regime was removed from power in 2001 in a US-led war.