Taliban insurgents probably won”t ease up on attacks in Afghanistan this winter as they have in the past, because their influence has spread beyond traditional strongholds to provinces around Kabul, the U.N. envoy to Afghanistan said Tuesday.
Attacks by insurgents are at a six-year high, Kai Eide, the world body”s special representative, told the Security Council.
He said the number of attacks and other “insecurity incidents” were at the highest level since 2002, shortly after a U.S.-led coalition drove the Taliban from power.
“We should be prepared for a situation where the insurgency will not experience the same winter lull, the same reduction in hostilities, we have experienced in past winters,” he added.
Eide, however, cautioned against “gloom and doom statements” that create an overly pessimistic outlook. He said there have been positive developments, including changes made by President Hamid Karzai to the Afghan government.
Afghan Ambassador Zahir Tanin concurred. “We should be careful with what we say about Afghanistan,” he said. “Media outlets move with astonishing speed in Afghanistan and word of mouth carries any pessimistic news quickly to the Afghan people.”
