KABUL, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants fighting against Afghan and the U.S.-led coalition forces in a new tactic to terrify people and undermine government popularity have intensified their roadside bombings and suicide attacks as over two dozen people have been killed over the past two days.
Militants in a new wave of violence and an indication of spreading activities in the relatively peaceful Northern provinces carried out a car bomb attack against the NATO-led peacekeeping ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) in Balkh province Friday injuring two soldiers.
Also on the same day on Friday, a suicide bomber loyal to Taliban outfit blew himself up in Zaranj, the capital of western Nimroz province, killing three persons and wounding over 10 others.
The target of the suicide bomber, according to provincial governor Ghulam Dastgir Azad was Minister for Refugees Affairs Abdul Karim Barahawi but he escaped unhurt.
Afghans on Saturday again experienced violent incidents as a bicycle bomb ripped through in Taliban former stronghold Kandahar leaving one person dead and wounding five others including two children and two police constables.
Moreover, two separate roadside bombings in Anjil district of the relatively peaceful Herat province on Saturday claimed the life of one person and wounded three others, all of them civilians.
Over 2,000 civilians had been killed in military operations and Taliban-linked insurgency last year in Afghanistan, a considerable number of them lost their lives in more than 250 suicide attacks and roadside bombings in the country.
Afghanistan, according to observers, would experience more violence in 2009, mostly in the shape of suicide and roadside bombings.
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said early this year that militants due to losing capability to confront troops would resort to deadly suicide bombings and roadside attacks.
Meantime, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Admiral Michael Mullen warned early this week that violence would go up this year in Afghanistan. The admiral, according to U.S. media reports, has backed reinforcing troops in Afghanistan, stressing that "I am very sure that the additional 17,000 combat troops, plus the additional 4,000 training troops, will have the right impact."
Corroborating the suggestion, a NATO-led ISAF forces commander in the volatile southern region Major General Mart de Kruif, according to media report said recently that "if you talk about successful elections or winning the counter-insurgency, it will be decided in southern Afghanistan."
The United States, under a revamped strategy, has announced sending in 21,000 new troops including 4,000 of them experts this year while urging allied nations to follow suit.
Currently over 70,000-strong U.S. and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been serving in Afghanistan to stabilize this war-torn country.
Conflicts and Taliban-led insurgency, which had claimed the lives of some 6,000 people, are predicted to rise this year in the post-Taliban country.
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