U.S. logs deadliest month in war

KABUL (AP) — A roadside bomb killed four American troops in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, driving the July death toll for U.S. forces to the highest monthly level of the war.

The latest deaths brought to at least 30 the number of American service members who have died in Afghanistan this month — two more than the figure for all of June 2008, which had been the deadliest month for the U.S. since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban from power.

July’s death toll for the entire U.S.-led coalition, which includes American, British, Canadian and other forces, stands at 55 — well over the previous record of 46 deaths suffered in June and August of 2008.

U.S. commanders had predicted a bloody summer after President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan in a bid to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban and shift the focus on the global war against Islamic extremism from Iraq.

NATO’s outgoing Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Monday that terrorism would spread through the world if NATO forces fail in Afghanistan.

“Al-Qaida would have a free run again, and their terrorist ambitions are global,” he said in a speech at London’s Chatham House think tank. “Those who argue otherwise — who say we can defend against terrorism from home — are simply burying their heads in the sand.”

Meanwhile, almost since the news two weeks ago that a U.S. soldier had been captured in Afghanistan, a small circle of people in a central Idaho town of 7,000 have known it was one of their own: a local family’s only son who was home-schooled here, danced at the local ballet school and rode his bike everywhere, was in the hands of the Taliban.

Out of respect for Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl’s intensely private family and fear that anything they might say could make his situation more precarious, however, neighbors have kept Bergdahl’s Hailey origins under wraps. The Pentagon wasn’t talking either; all that U.S. Department of Defense officials said in early July was that a U.S. soldier was believed in enemy captivity.

The 23-year-old Bergdahl was serving with a unit based in Fort Richardson, Alaska, earlier this month when he vanished, just five months after arriving in Afghanistan, officials said. He was serving at a base near the Pakistan border.

stan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold.

Only after Saturday’s Internet airing of a 28-minute video in which Bergdahl is shown captive and says he fears never going home again did DOD officials finally release his name. Some of Bergdahl’s friends and acquaintances are also slowly opening up, too, with permission from his father.