Taliban 'planning attacks on British summer patrols'

paktribune: Taliban insurgent leaders in southern Afghanistan are planning a campaign of hit-and-run attacks and ambushes aimed at inflicting casualties on the British troops who will patrol the area from this summer.

A US special forces' report seen by the Herald says a shortage of military manpower caused by the more pressing priority of Iraq has "allowed the enemy to reorganise, refit and prepare to conduct a more focused campaign against coalition forces".

Their targets will be the 3300 British and 2000 Canadian troops in Helmand province and the 1400 Dutch peacekeepers in neighbouring Oruzgan. The report, drawn up by the intelligence cell of Task Force 31, the US special forces "Desert Eagles" unit based at Kandahar, also says the Taliban "have emerged stronger than at any time since a combined US-Northern Alliance force drove them from power in 2001".

More than 100 US soldiers have been killed in action in the southern provinces in the last year.

More than 40 people died at the weekend as fighting raged across Helmand. The dead included 12 Afghan government police and several officials in well-co-ordinated attacks. Link