Afghanistan's surging violence left three Canadian soldiers and 21 suspected Taliban fighters dead yesterday, while insurgents grabbed control of another district headquarters in the south.
NATO said it was facing a seasonal escalation of insurgent operations, but it dismissed recent suicide and bomb attacks as "militarily insignificant."
The Canadian troops died when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb while on a supply mission between two checkpoints in Kandahar's Panjwayi district, said Brig. Gen. Tim Grant, head of Canadian forces in the country.
The latest deaths brought to 60 the number of Canadian troops killed in Afghanistan since they were deployed as part of the NATO-led force in 2002.
NATO and Afghan troops, meanwhile, clashed with fighters in the same province and called in air strikes, killing 21 suspects, local mayor Khairudin Achakzai said. The bodies were strewn in the battlefield along with their weapons and ammunition, he said.
Violence this year has killed more than 2,400 people, mostly insurgents, according to an Associated Press count of figures from Afghan and Western military officials.
The recent spike in insurgent attacks and bombings shows the Taliban remains unbowed more than five years after its ouster, despite the deaths of thousands of militants.
"We find ourselves in the midst of the so-called fighting season, when what we had predicted is taking place: an increase in suicide bombings and more desperate attempts by the enemies of peace and stability to present the illusion that they are stronger than they are," said Lt. Col. Maria Carl, a spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
Insurgents, meanwhile, pressed ahead with their tactic of taking control of remote districts, an apparent attempt to stretch thin the Afghan security forces.
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