Troops deaths in Afghan war seen rising with surge

KABUL: The arrival in Afghanistan of tens of thousands of reinforcements to fight the Taliban will lead to a higher death rate among foreign troops, adding pressure on Western leaders to get out altogether, officials say.

Militants fighting for the overthrow of the Kabul government promised to turn Afghanistan into a "flaming tandoor oven", escalating attacks and deploying more fighters to match the Western surge.

Western military chiefs warn more troops will inevitably lead to more deaths as they try to help Afghan security forces take on the fight alone.

The Taliban leadership, believed to be based in Pakistan, has matched the fighting words by promising a surge of its own.

"With the coming of new forces the fight will be further extended and increased," said Zabihullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, who spoke to media by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Militant forces would "attack the foreign forces as well as their Afghan allies through suicide attacks, roadside bombs and face-to-face clashes", he said.

"They will transform Afghanistan into a flaming tandoor oven for the foreign forces."

America's economic woes could limit resources for forces fighting a Taliban with access to funds from the three-billion-dollar-a-year Afghan opium industry and fighters from Pakistan, said political analyst Ahmed Sayedi.

On top of the drugs money, he said, "people in Middle Eastern and Arab countries are providing funding for the Taliban, and neighbouring countries Pakistan and Iran are arming them.