August 21, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 18, 1429

KABUL, Aug 20: Drawing strength from situation in Pakistan, Afghan militants are using their growing control of the border area to plot increasingly brazen attacks against international forces, the Nato commander in Afghanistan said.

US Gen David D. McKiernan, who took over the Nato command in Afghanistan in June, said attacks had spiked this year. McKiernan said the militancy was drawing its strength from a “deterioration of conditions across the border in Pakistan.”

“Militant sanctuaries are expanding in the tribal areas,” McKiernan said on Monday. He said militants were mustering larger forces against international troops and carrying out more roadside bombings, suicide attacks and ambushes.

The US and Nato are concerned the “weak hold” Pakistan’s new government has on the tribal region, where they fear cease-fire deals have allowed militants based in the frontier areas to step up attacks across the border in Afghanistan and plot attacks on the West.

McKiernan, who described the militants’ campaign as “resilient,” said the most violent attacks came near the Pakistani border and were often connected to Afghanistan’s ring road that links the country’s major cities.

Earlier this week, militants ambushed a group of French soldiers, killing 10 in a gorge just 35km outside Kabul. In July, an attack left nine American troops dead.

Over the past several months McKiernan said Nato had seen an influx of Chechens, Turks and Middle Eastern fighters as well as ‘’sometimes Europeans.’’

Some are coming through Iran and others are getting off international flights at Karachi before heading northwest to training camps in the border regions.

McKiernan alleged that the resistance had benefited from Pakistani sanctuaries and a deepening sense of insecurity in Afghanistan caused by criminal gangs, drug traffickers, and smugglers often accused of links with government officials.—AP