Security situation deteriorating in Afghanistan, Pakistan

Security situation has been deteriorating due to a chain of Wednesday bombings and escalated Taliban retaliatory attacks, and the United States government is currently mulling over troop increase options for Afghan battlefields.

Six United Nations staff workers, including one American, were among the dead by a fierce assault by the Taliban militants, who also launched several rockets into the Kabul embassy district on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a huge car bomb explosion killed at least 90 people in a crowded market in northwest Pakistan's city of Peshawar on the same day.

Several rockets slammed into Kabul embassy district on Wednesday morning, one of them landing within a reach of less than 50 meters from the Chinese Embassy, and Kabul's five-star Serena Hotel also came under two rocket fires. The Chinese embassy building has not been destroyed nevertheless, and there were no casualties for both attacks.

Taliban spokesman Zabiulla Mujaheed claimed responsibility for the attacks. In order to boycott or resist the second-round presidential election due for Nov. 7, Taliban will target on any institutions and individuals who would do favors and help with the presidential election, noted the Taliban spokesman. Critics, however, acknowledged that the Afghan security situation is definitely precarious and very severe in the next few days.

Hundreds of casualties have been reported in terrorist attacks since the Pakistan government forces launched a major ground offensive in the main al Qaida and Taliban strongholds along the border with Afghanistan a month ago. A massive car bomb tore through the heart of a bustling marketplace in Peshawar on Wednesday, killing at least 100 people and wounded more than 200 others, including many women and children, according to Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for the Pakistani North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The powerful car bomb ripped through the packed market in Peshawar just hours after the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her three-day maiden, official visit to Pakistan. She noted during the talks with her Pakistan counterpart Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi that both sides agreed to resume and intensify the U.S.-Pakistan strategic dialogue. "The United States wants to help Pakistan in economic arena, wants to help create jobs, develop infrastructure, create investment opportunities and more access to education and healthcare," she said.

In another development, Monday, October 26, was the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan in nearly over years. On that day, 14 Americans were killed in three Afghan helicopter crashes… Eleven American troops, one U.S. civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured.

On the following day, Tuesday, eight American troops were killed in multiple bomb attacks in Afghanistan. These lethal bombing attacks made October the deadest month by U.S. forces since the Afghan war began eight years ago, in 2001. Moreover, a top U.S. diplomat, Matthew Hoh, resigned in a high-profile protest of the war in Afghanistan. He submitted his resignation as he could not justify the reason of the ongoing Afghan war. And this former marine-turned diplomat thus became the first US official known to resign in protest over the eight-year war.

U.S. military has been mulling two options this week under the auspices of Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, for troop increase in Afghanistan, according to a senior Pentagon official. Afghanistan War Game tested a 44,000-troop increase… it also examined adding 10,000 to 15,000 more soldiers and Marines as part of an approach that the military has dubbed "counterterrorism plus."

In the meantime, President Obama's national security team is reportedly questioning all the fundamental assumptions underlying such a counter-insurgency strategy: "It's not how many troops that matter most… of improved governance and increased Afghan capacity – civilian and … We must strengthen the capacity of the Afghan government and… None of this will be easy, but there is a path forward if we focus on what is available."

Furthermore, military spending is also a crucial factor or topic in review. The U.S. has to spend "the money requested here" – about 6.5 billion dollars in Afghanistan for the American forces in the country "set to reach 68,000 by the end of this year." It simply implies that the United States would add one billion dollars annually to the military spending for an average increase of 1,000 troops for the Afghan War each year.

By People's Daily Online and contributed by Meng Xianglin and Wen Xian, PD resident reporters respectively in Pakistan and the U.S.