A bomb killed seven people on a bus in Afghanistan yesterday, the latest in a string of attacks linked to an insurgency that Washington hopes to reverse with a strategy likely to be unveiled in days.
The blast occurred in the eastern province of Khost, which has seen a series of attacks over the past week, including a bombing at a New Year’s Day gathering at the weekend that killed two men.
“There was an IED [improvised explosive device] planted by the enemies of the people of Afghanistan that hit the vehicle,” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
“As a result seven civilians, including a woman, were killed and nine other civilians wounded,” he said of the blast about 20km outside the city of Khost.
Militant attacks and military raids have picked up in recent weeks with the arrival of spring, which has traditionally seen a surge in violence during Afghanistan’s long years of conflict.
Afghans had hoped the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime from power in late 2001 would herald the end of three decades of war, which sent roughly 8 million people into exile and left millions more dead or wounded.
But an insurgency led by Taliban militants has thwarted dreams of stability, with the violence peaking last year to leave nearly 2,200 civilians dead, most of them in attacks.
US President Barack Obama has switched the focus of the “war on terror” from Iraq to Afghanistan and ordered 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, where there are already about 75,000 soldiers under US and NATO command.
He is also preparing to roll out a new strategy for the embattled nation, expected to be unveiled at an international meeting on Afghanistan in the Netherlands on March 31.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to attend, along with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Obama said on Tuesday that the strategy would be more “focused,” “disciplined” and “comprehensive” than the previous US anti-terror effort.
It was important to stay on the “offense” against a terror threat that was not going away, he said, stressing the need for better diplomatic and development strategy as part of a wider global effort in the war zone.
The new plan is also likely to focus on militant bases in neighboring Pakistan, where hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda rebels fled to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban government.
The strategy is also expected to reinforce demands for a major expansion of Kabul’s security forces, notably the police, and wooing “moderate” insurgents to renounce fighting and accept the post-Taliban Constitution.
Obama’s National Security Adviser James Jones said the US would also ask Europe to increase non-military aid to Afghanistan.
“We are going to ask our friends to think about civil reconstruction because ... we have not had the cohesion and the joint effort up until now,” he said in an interview in France on Tuesday.
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