KABUL (AFP) — Pakistan's talks with extremists have resulted in a 40 percent rise in rebel activity in Afghanistan, the NATO force said Wednesday, as authorities reported a British soldier had been killed.
Two Afghan soldiers and about a dozen Taliban have also died in new unrest, officials said, as part of a spike in insurgency-linked violence in recent weeks.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said warmer weather had played some part in the rise in conflict.
"There is also evidence that the activities increased by some 40 percent since ... tribal areas became unregulated following the negotiations between the Pakistan government and Baitullah Mehsud," Captain Mike Finney said.
Mehsud is the shadowy leader of Taliban-based militants in Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. He has vowed to continue "jihad" in Afghanistan even while pursuing peace talks with Islamabad.
Finney told a press conference that it was up to the international community to put pressure on Islamabad to root out the cause of the unrest, a reference to Taliban and Al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan.
"In terms of fighting the cause, that is for the international community to put pressure on those who can do something about it," he said. "But the ISAF mandate is very clear, and that goes as far as the border."
More foreign militants were in Afghanistan, defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told the same media briefing. They were identified through documents found on them and due to the languages they spoke, he said.
Insurgents were also changing tactics from targeting security forces to focusing on infrastructure.
"In the past, the attacks were mostly on Afghan and foreign forces. Now we see they target vital and basic infrastructure," Azimi said.
The military had reports of militants planning to attack power plants and dams, and they were already striking highways and construction projects, he added.
Meanwhile, Britain's Ministry of Defence announced that a British soldier had died after being struck in an explosion on Tuesday in southern Helmand Province.
Three other British soldiers were killed in the past week in Helmand, a stronghold of insurgents with the Taliban, which was in government between 1996 and 2001 before being ousted in US-led invasion.
Helmand is also Afghanistan's main opium-producing centre, and officials say the drugs trade is financing some of the insurgency as well as feeding rampant government corruption.
The Afghan defence ministry said Wednesday that soldiers had killed 10 militants in Helmand province's Musa Qala area.
A US-led coalition forces' air strike on militant positions in the east had killed three more, the ministry said in a statement, while a "number" of militants died in an operation in the central province of Ghazni.
Two Afghan soldiers also died in combat in the past 24 hours, it said.
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