Violence Up — Way Up — in Afghanistan

Gen. David Petraeus announced Thursday that violence in Afghanistan has spiked 59 percent in recent months, hitting its highest level since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. American troops in the country now number 56,000 and will increase to 68,000 in the second half of this year. Petraeus said a coming increase in U.S. military activity signals that the trend of rising violence and casualties will continue.

Al Jazeera:

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked to its highest levels since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the general in charge of US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia says.

General David Patraeus, the head of US Central Command, said the number of attacks in the country spiked to its highest point last week, and he predicted that the trend was very likely to continue.

“The past week was the highest level of security incidents in Afghanistan’s history, at least that post-liberation history,” Petraeus told a forum in Washington DC on Thursday.

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