Hostilities flare again in America's other war

The latest fighting follows a spate of recent attacks in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Paktika, and Nangahar. Both Afghan and coalition soldiers came under attack, resulting in the deaths of about half a dozen Afghan soldiers, authorities say. Those attacked helped prompt the March 20 launch of a massive operation code named Valiant Strike in Kandahar, the largest US-led mission in Afghanistan since Operation Anaconda a year earlier.

The southeastern town of Jalalabad, meanwhile, has been rocked by a string of bomb attacks and the mysterious delivery of "night letters," pro-Taliban pamphlets distributed under the cover of darkness that urge locals to rise up against the US-backed Afghan government and to kill American soldiers.

Senior Taliban commander Mulla Dadullah, interviewed by telephone last week by the BBC's Pashtu language service, said Taliban forces were regrouping under Mullah Mohammed Omar to drive "Jews and Christians, all foreign crusaders" from Afghanistan. Attacks would increase in the near future, Mr. Dadullah claimed.

Concerns grew in neighboring Pakistan as well, with officials saying they were receiving fresh intelligence that terrorist groups are planning attacks.

The US Embassy in Islamabad, currently on high security alert, has warned American citizens and other westerners in Pakistan of a new threat "from terrorists posing as street vendors or beggars on busy streets." The statement advised foreigners to avoid congested areas.

Meanwhile, other intelligence indicates that Iraqi terror cells could be targeting American diplomats in Islamabad, prompting local police forces to ban cars with diplomatic plates from Iraq from driving near the sprawling US Embassy compound.

Observers say the American government needs to recognize that a confluence of issues could lead to further violence and possibly destabilize both Pakistan and Afghanistan in the coming weeks or months. Not least is the issue that people here generally oppose the invasion of Iraq and believe the US is targeting fellow Muslims.

Pakistani officials also widely fear that the US will again desert the region once Al Qaeda leaders such as Osama bin Laden are captured or if the campaign in Iraq drags on -- as the US did following the Afghan war in the 1980s to oust Soviet invaders.

Afghan officials, meanwhile, worry that the slow pace of reconstruction in their shattered country is stirring resentment among the poor.

"In this context," says analyst Khalid Mehmood of Pakistan's Institute of Regional Studies, "the Taliban and the people who share their world view are more likely to increase their resistance, and this is exactly what is happening."

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