By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
WASHINGTON — A roadside bombing in Afghanistan Wednesday that killed four British soldiers highlights a disturbing trend: Coalition fatalities, which have declined in past winters, instead have been spiking to record levels amid increasingly fierce fighting throughout the country.
The explosion occurred a day after four U.S. soldiers were killed elsewhere in southern Afghanistan. The two blasts pushed this month’s coalition death toll to at least 23, a higher level than in any previous February.
An Afghan police officer looks over the wreckage of a motorcycle used in a bomb blast in Kandahar province on Wednesday.
The deaths come as the Obama administration scrambles to reverse Afghanistan’s deterioration, which is emerging as the new administration’s top foreign policy concern. President Barack Obama approved the deployment of 17,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan last week, and U.S. commanders expect to deploy 13,000 more before year end. Those additions will nearly double the about 35,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan now.
"I have to tell you that 2009 is going to be a tough year," Gen. David McKiernan, the top American commander in Afghanistan, said last week. He said coalition forces are stuck in a "stalemate" with the resurgent Taliban.
Violence in Afghanistan has closely tracked the seasons since the start of the war in 2001, decreasing during the harsh winter months and picking up in the spring.
Last fall, senior U.S. commanders said there were indications that militants who normally spend the winter months training in Pakistan were instead preparing to remain in Afghanistan to carry out attacks. This year’s winter also has been unusually mild, which has made it easier for militants to survive in the Afghan mountains or cross over from Pakistan.
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* Review U.S. and allied casualties since the start of the fighting in Afghanistan.
There were 27 coalition deaths in December 2008, compared with nine the previous December and four in 2006. January saw 24 fatalities, up from 14 in January 2008 and two the previous year. Last February, there were just seven fatalities, compared with 23 so far this month.
A senior official with the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul said the increased casualties result partly from "higher insurgent activity" in southern and eastern Afghanistan, but said the deaths were also the inevitable result of new coalition efforts to take the fight to the enemy.
The official said coalition forces have mounted "significantly higher ISAF operations in support of voter registration" ahead of national elections scheduled for August. He said the coalition is deploying forces to insurgent strongholds as part of a push to "keep the pressure on the insurgents throughout the winter months."
Col. Gregory Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, said coalition and insurgent deaths were likely to spiral higher in coming months. "There may be an initial spike in the casualty figures and violence," he said by email from Kabul. "We’re planning on the majority of them being the insurgents."
Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at [email protected]
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