Record Afghan violence in early June: Petraeus

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Violent unrest surged to new highs last month and there are “tough months ahead,” even
as US reinforcements are flowing in, General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq and Afghanistan,
warned Thursday.
“The past week was the highest level of security incidents in Afghanistan’s post liberation history,” in late 2001,
when the Taliban were pushed out of power, Petraeus said in a speech at a conference organized by the Center
for a New American Security. Figures for incidents in Afghanistan for the first week of June were not immediately
available. From January to May, insurgent attacks in Afghanistan were up by 59 percent from the same period a
year earlier NATO data show.
“There is no question that the situation has deteriorated over the course of the past two years and that there are
difficult times ahead,” the general said.
“There are some tough months ahead,” Petraus added warning: “some of this will go up because we are going
to go after their sanctuaries and safe havens as we must.”
President Barack Obama since taking ofice has reoriented the US military focus from Iraq to Afghanistan and
decided to send in an additional 21,000 troops on that front.
US troops strength in Afghanistan should hit “68,000 by this fall” (late this year) said Petraeus, along with 33,000
allied troops under US and NATO commands.