Taliban Hard To Combat In Afghanistan, U.S. Military Says

Afghan troops in Kandahar (file photo) (epa) April 11, 2006 -- The U.S. military says Taliban attacks in Afghanistan are becoming harder to combat.

A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan said Taliban forces have increased the number of attacks and changed tactics to spread a campaign of fear rather than try to defeat the security forces militarily. Militants are increasingly using roadside and suicide bombings.

The spike in violence follows threats by the Taliban to intensify attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops this spring and summer.

In one incident on April 10, a bomb blast killed two policemen and wounded two others during an opium eradication patrol in the province of Helmand, the country's main poppy-growing region.

(AP)