Taliban Prepare Surge, US Deaths Double

Taliban Prepare Surge, US Deaths Double

IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
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Taliban promised to turn Afghanistan into a "flaming tandoor oven" for the incoming foreign fighters. (Reuters)
KABUL — The emboldened Taliban are preparing their own surge to fight back the new American military deployments, with new data showing an unprecedented increase in the death toll of American troops during 2009.

"With the coming of new forces the fight will be further extended and increased," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Sunday, December 27.

He said Taliban are preparing a huge and bloody reception for the incoming American troops.

"(We will) attack the foreign forces as well as their Afghan allies through suicide attacks, roadside bombs and face-to-face clashes", he said.

"They will transform Afghanistan into a flaming tandoor oven for the foreign forces."

Early this month, the US and its western allies ordered the deployment of nearly 40,000 additional troops, boosting the already 113,000 foreign soldiers fighting under US and NATO command in Afghanistan.

Though it is meant to reverse the Taliban's momentum and strengthen the West-backed Kabul government, the US recognizes the tough mission ahead.

"I told our troops heading here to steel themselves for more combat and more casualties," US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen has said.

An influx of extra troops has escalated battles in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, the Taliban heartland.

Taliban fighters have supplemented battlefield tactics with roadside bombs, which have taken an enormous toll.

Last September, the London-based International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) said Taliban widened its influence to cover almost all Afghanistan.

Deaths Surge

Taliban's threats came as new data showed an unprecedented increase in the death toll of American troops during 2009.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the killing of an American soldier following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, December 26.

This took to 506 the number of foreign troops killed in 2009, including 310 Americans, according to the independent website icasualties.org which tracks military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Only 155 American troops were killed in war-ravaged Afghanistan the previous year, according to icasualties.

With four days remaining of 2009, this year has proved the deadliest so far in the battle against the Taliban, which was ousted by the US in 2001.

Experts say deaths will escalate further with the arrival of reinforcements -- 30,000 from the US and 6,800 from NATO allies -- over the course of 2010.

Over 900 Americans and nearly 600 allied troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the invasion.