Insurgent attacks in eastern Afghanistan rose by 40 per cent in the first five months of this year over the same period a year ago, the US commander of Nato forces in the region said today.
While insisting Nato was making progress in establishing stability, Maj Gen Jeffrey Schloesser said he was "nowhere near" being able to state those efforts had achieved irreversible momentum.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon from Afghanistan, he also said attacks by Taliban and other insurgents were becoming increasingly complex and targeted sites such as schools to disrupt economic development.
Maj Gen Schloesser's comments came against a backdrop of increasing concern in Washington and other Western capitals about the war in Afghanistan and instability in border areas of Pakistan, where US officials say Taliban fighters enjoy safe haven.
He said success in Afghanistan would ultimately come not through military operations but when Afghans "sitting on the fence" concluded their government offered a better quality of life and decided to oppose insurgent groups.
"I can't predict how long it's going to take. I can say that I believe we're making progress," he said.
Maj Gen Schloesser said the rise in violence was not unexpected as attacks had increased every year since 2002, the year after US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power following the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Eastern and southern Afghanistan have been the scenes of the heaviest insurgent violence, but US officials had touted the east as a success story last year, saying the area had become much more stable.
Maj Gen Schloesser said one reason for the rise in attacks this year was that international and Afghan forces had gone into areas where they had not operated before to hunt insurgents.