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 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. and NATO commanders say they have blunted the Taliban's threatened spring offensive, killing almost 40 commanders and 2,000 insurgents. But suicide bombings and civilian deaths inflicted by international forces are all on the rise, threatening to derail the five-year mission to pacify and rebuild Afghanistan.
Six months into 2007, claims of progress in stabilizing the government of President Hamid Karzai are clouded by strains in the Western alliance and what analysts say is growing pessimism in NATO capitals.
Five years after the Taliban's ouster, the militia is again a serious adversary, seizing control of swaths of the south, despite the presence of more NATO, U.S. and Afghan troops.
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