The fracturing of NATO over the Afghanistan deployment becomes more apparent each day. The United States has pleaded for NATO allies to deploy an additional 7,500 combat troops to Afghanistan to blunt an expected Taliban spring offensive, but with no relief available, the Washington Post reports the planned deployment of 3,200 U.S. Marines is intended to “shame” the NATO allies. Meanwhile, NATO members Britain and Canada are complaining their forces suffer a disproportionate number of casualties.
While the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand have high levels of violence, a look at the statistics shows the British claim is incorrect. The Taliban/al Qaeda/HIG related violence (referred to as AGE, or Anti Government Elements, violence) Is highest in the eastern, southeastern, and southern regions of Afghanistan. The eastern and southern regions each suffer 25 percent of the Taliban violence. The southeastern region suffers 23 percent of the Taliban related violence. U.S. forces are deployed in both the east and southeast, as well as in the south. Kunar province in the east leads in violent Taliban incidents (734), followed by Kandahar in the south (697), Khost (southeast, 438), Nangarhar (east, 320), Paktia (southeast, 320), Paktika (southeast, 228), Helmand (south, 228), and Ghazi (southeast, 225). The charts below (after the jump) look at the data over the course of 2007. The data has been compiled and the grpahs have been created by Vigilant Strategic Services Afghanistan (VSSA).
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Incidents by region attributed to AGE. Click to view. |
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Incidents by province attributed to AGE, or Anti-Government Elements (The Taliban, Al Qaeda, HIG, etc.). Click to view. |
