US military build-up in Kandahar will bolster Taliban, warns security monitor

The US military build-up in Kandahar is likely to further make stronger the hold of the Taliban over the vital southern Afghanistan city, a highly respected security organization said today in a bleak report warning of record Taliban violence and rising civilian deaths across the country.

The account by the Afghanistan NGO Security Office, which monitors trends in aggression on behalf of aid organizations, said Nato's counter-insurgency strategy was not showing any signs of succeeding amid rising violence, the unchecked establishment of local militias and a huge increase in attacks on private development workers across the country.It exposed that June marked a record for Taliban attacks – up 51% on the previous year to 1,319 operations.