Christiane Amanpour: Violence in Afghanistan on the rise
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CNN's Christiane Amanpour
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(CNN) -- At least eight Afghan soldiers were killed Monday after an ambush by suspected Taliban forces, a day after two U.S. troops died in clashes near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
These events are the latest examples of some of the fiercest fighting taking place since the fall of the Taliban government in late 2001, CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour said.
Amanpour spoke Monday with Anchor Soledad O'Brien about the situation in Afghanistan, from where she recently returned. She discussed her findings from London, England.
AMANPOUR: Well, there's no doubt that over this summer the violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the south and in the east, has been on the rise. We're talking now two years into the war [on] terror in Afghanistan, and really the violence is increasing there. And it's a very, very troubling development both for U.S. forces there [in] Operation Enduring Freedom, who are trying to combat the Taliban and al Qaeda remnants, to see that there's been a resurgence of those elements over the last several weeks.
A U.S. spokesperson tells us that this now brings the total [to] 34 American soldiers dead and 167 wounded over the last two years or so. But, of course, in the last couple of weeks it's been some of the worst violence that they've had since the U.S. toppled the Taliban back in November of 2001.
Now we did speak to the commanding general of U.S. forces there, Gen. John Vines. We spoke to him when we were there a couple of weeks ago, and he was quite worried about this resurgent Taliban and elements of al Qaeda. He insisted that they cannot regain territory, he said, but they can cause a lot of trouble, influencing local Afghans, harassing U.S. troops, harassing Afghan government forces and elements of the U.S.-backed central authority there.
(VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. JOHN VINES, COMMANDER, OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM: . . . [P]erhaps some are still in Pakistan, some are attempting to come into parts of the country, particularly around Kandahar. We're seeing that. We had a decisive engagement on the eastern border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where about 20 anti-coalition forces were killed. A few of those were, in fact, not Afghan or Pakistani; some of them were Arab. And some of those probably were affiliated with al Qaeda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So we talked to a lot of people, military officials, diplomatic officials, U.S., Afghan and other internationals who were there, and people are concerned. This kind of violence is not meant to be happening two years into the war in Afghanistan, two years just about since the Taliban has been toppled.
It's affecting aid organizations and their work. It's also having a direct effect on the U.S.-backed central government there of Hamid Karzai. And of course, it's all going to be in quite dramatic play when there are elections next year. The U.S. obviously [is] very concerned that security be proper and stability be proper there to ensure the re-election of their favored candidate, Hamid Karzai. So it's a very precarious situation right now.
O'BRIEN: Christiane, there's some new reports out about Osama bin Laden. What information are you getting about Mullah Omar and also Osama bin Laden, officially?
AMANPOUR: Well, we asked, as I say, a number of officials both on the U.S. side and the Afghan side, and they are absolutely convinced, in the absence of any other evidence, that both are alive and both continue to encourage their supporters. We get varying answers depending on who and when as to where they may be.
Most are saying that probably Osama bin Laden could be in the Pakistani mountains on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Others say that Mullah Omar may be with him. But whatever is happening, what they're doing is encouraging their people to take these now sort of opportunistic attacks against the U.S. and, indeed, Afghan government forces inside Afghanistan. And it is, according to officials we've been talking to there, a rather troubling development. So certainly the fact that they are not caught is something that's giving additional life to both the movements, al Qaeda and Taliban, there.
