Enlarge imageBy Mirwais Afghan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The violence that has blighted Afghanistan for so many long years has shattered baker Abdul Sallam’s life.
Sallam’s 33-year-old son was killed in a suicide bomb attack in the southern city of Kandahar last week.
"He was the only one working at the bakery to support the family but now he’s dead. I don’t know what to do," the old man said while visiting his son’s grave.
Sallam’s son was standing outside his bakery when a suicide bomber attacked a Canadian military convoy on Jan 15.
He and another bystander were killed. A senior Canadian diplomat was also killed and three Canadian soldiers were seriously wounded. Suicide bombers killed 26 people in two attacks the next day.
Afghanistan
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has not seen the extremes violence that Iraq has had to endure but parts of the south and east are still plagued by bloodshed, more than four years after U.S. forces invaded to drive the Taliban from power.Security will be a central issue at an international conference on Afghanistan in London on Jan 31-February 1.
Afghanistan is seeking a firm commitment of international military help until its fledgling security forces can do the job.
Spreading fear and anger, the Taliban and their militant allies have begun copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq, unleashing a wave of suicide bombings -- 13 since November.
"When we go to the market our families worry about us. We don’t know if we’ll get home alive," said Kandahar resident Gulali.
Attacks by militants surged last Spring, along with major clashes with U.S. and Afghan government forces.
About 1,500 people were killed in violence last year, most of them insurgents but including about 60 U.S. troops. But the violence, largely confined to the south and east, did not disrupt landmark legislative elections in September.
Unable to defeat the security forces, the militants are increasingly turning to bomb attacks on military and civilian targets, the U.S. military says.
"VERY DISTURBING"
"When you have teachers being beheaded and schools being closed in parts of the country, when you have suicide bombers killing Afghan civilians and Canadian diplomats, that is a very disturbing trend," said Richard Norland, deputy chief of the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
"What we need to do collectively is work towards some solutions to try to contain these tactics," he said.
Many angry Afghans, including the governor of Kandahar province, have accused Pakistan of involvement in the bombings. Pakistan, which is battling militants on its side of the border, denies the accusations.
The latest wave of violence comes as the United States hopes to cut its troop numbers to 16,000, from more than 18,000, with NATO due to fill the gap by increasing its peacekeeping force to 15,000 from 9,000.
British, Dutch and Canadian NATO troops are due to lead an expansion into the south but the plan has been thrown into question by Dutch doubts about sending 1,200 soldiers to a region far more dangerous than the areas NATO now operates in.
The stubborn insurgency, which President Hamid Karzai says is fuelled by drug money, is disastrous for efforts to attract investment. It also disrupts development work. About 30 aid workers, most of them Afghans, were killed last year.
"There are no areas where no NGOs are going but there are vast areas where very few NGOs are going," Anja de Beer, director of an agency coordinating non-governmental organisations (NGOs), said of the south.
Some Afghans say the violence will continue as long as foreign forces remain but most say only international troops can secure peace.
"We need coalition forces because we don’t have a strong, self-sufficient army and police," said Kandahar resident Saifullah.
