At least 105 killed during surge in violence

NATO will take over the lead military role this summer.
WASHINGTON POST
ASADABAD, Afghanistan -- This struggling country was rocked Thursday by some of the deadliest violence since the Taliban was driven from power in late 2001.
As many as 105 people were reported killed in four provinces as insurgents torched a district government compound, set off suicide bombs and clashed fiercely with Afghan and foreign troops.
Between 80 and 90 Taliban fighters were killed in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, Afghan, U.S. and NATO officials reported. Two sites in Kandahar were struck by U.S. warplanes, including a long-range B-1 bomber, which the U.S. military said destroyed a compound Taliban fighters were using to stage an attack.
Among the dead were a U.S. State Department trainer killed by a car bomb in Herat province, a female Canadian army captain and at least 12 Afghan national policemen, officials said.
Afghanistan experienced several years of relative calm after the pro-Western government took over in Kabul in 2001. But in recent months, the pace and scope of insurgent attacks have been increasing steadily, and now include suicide bombings, a tactic long foreign to Afghanistan.
The violence has surged as NATO forces prepare to assume the lead military role in Afghanistan this summer, a transition that some observers believe the Taliban and other insurgent groups are seeking to test.
President responds
President Hamid Karzai, visiting the capital of eastern Konar province under heavy security, angrily denounced the new violence as the work of religious extremists and intelligence services in neighboring Pakistan, saying they had sent young men across the border to stage attacks in the name of holy war.
"In Pakistan they train people to go to Afghanistan, conduct jihad, burn schools and clinics," he told a gathering of provincial elders in a long, emotional speech. "What kind of Islam is this?"