KABUL: US troops on Afghanistan's eastern border have seen a threefold increase in attacks since the recent truce between Pakistani troops and pro-Taliban tribesmen that was supposed to have stopped militants making cross-border raids, a US military official said on Wednesday.| “Rebels are no longer fighting Pakistani troops and are using the North Waziristan border area as a command-and-control hub for launching attacks in Afghanistan...” |
Pakistani tribal elders brokered the truce between Pakistan's government and militants and an accord was signed September 5, ending years of unrest in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Under the deal, the militants agreed to halt attacks on Pakistani forces in North Waziristan and to stop crossing into Afghanistan to attack US and Afghan forces. But the agreement appears to have empowered Taliban infiltrators rather than slowing the incursions, with the number of attacks in eastern Afghan provinces rising threefold since July 31, said the US official, asking not to be named.