An alarming surge in suicide attacks has fuelled a 30% rise in violence in Afghanistan this year, according to the United Nations.
This year has seen an average of 550 violent incidents a month compared with 425 in 2006, a report by the department of safety and security said.
The past 10 days have been a sobering indicator of the trend — almost 300 people have died in coalition air strikes, roadside ambushes and suicide bombings.
The bloodshed is in stark contrast with Iraq, where the death rate has been steadily falling, partly because of a United States troop surge. There are 40Â 000 foreign troops in Afghanistan and more than 175Â 000 in Iraq.
Brutality has become a hallmark of the insurgency. This week the Taliban hanged a 15-year-old boy from an electrical pole in Helmand, stuffing dollar bills into his mouth and accusing him of being a spy.
In Kabul last week 30 people died after a suicide bomber boarded a bus transporting Afghan army recruits. A second attack on Tuesday killed 17 people on a police bus, including a mother and four children.
The UN report contradicts recent upbeat statements by President George W Bush and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, in New York. Now Karzai and Western officials are discussing a previously unthinkable prospect — negotiation with the enemy.
Last Saturday Karzai repeated his offer of talks with the Taliban’s one-eyed leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, referring to him as “esteemed” instead of the usual boilerplate “enemy of Afghanistan”. But the overture was swiftly rebuffed. “The Taliban will never negotiate with the Afghan government in the presence of foreign troops,” spokesperson Qari Yousef Ahmadi told Associated Press.
Analysts say the Taliban have a two-pronged strategy: to re-establish their authority over the southern provinces around their former headquarters in Kandahar and to destabilise a ring of provinces around Kabul. — Â