April 24, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1429

KABUL: Most insurgent attacks occur in just a quarter of Afghanistan, a Nato-led force helping to fight the extremist insurgency here said on Wednesday, dismissing a “perception” that Taliban violence is spreading.

There had been an increase in violence over the past two years, but this was because the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had stepped up its offensive against the rebels, spokesman Mark Laity told reporters.

“There has been more fighting, more incidents, and the reason is almost 300 per cent more activity in some parts of the insurgency generated by us,” Laity said.

However, “This insurgency is contained,” he said. “This is serious but this is not a countrywide insurgency.” ISAF spokesman General Carlos Branco added that this year “96 per cent of the insurgency activities and the offensive engagements occurred in just 25 per cent of the districts.” And in nearly two-thirds of districts, numbering 230, “there has been no recorded insurgency activity this year,” Branco said.

Most of these areas were in the north and centre of the country, areas which are relatively free of Taliban violence that plays out mostly in the south and east.

“A current issue in local and international media is the poor perception of the state of security in Afghanistan and large extent of insurgent activities.

But the facts clearly contradict this perception,” Branco said.

A UN Security Council report in March said that in 2007 “the level of insurgent and terrorist activity increased sharply from that of the previous year.” An average of 566 incidents per month was recorded in 2007, compared with 425 a month in 2006, it said.—AFP