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t r u t h o u t | 06.14

Four Marines Die in Afghanistan; 870 Inmates Escape
http://www.truthout.org/article/four-marines-die-afghanistan-870-inmates-escape
Noor Khan And Jason Straziuso, The Associated Press, report: "About 870
prisoners escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison
in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a
prison floor, Afghan officials said Saturday. And in western Afghanistan on
Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded near a US military vehicle, killing four
Americans in the deadliest attack against US troops in the country this year,
officials said."

AFGHAN ATTACKS UP FIFTY-PERCENT!

"A Sober Assessment of Afghanistan"

"Outgoing U.S. Commander Cites 50%% Spike in Attacks in East"

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 15, 2008; A16

The outgoing top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan said Friday
that attacks increased 50 percent in April in the country's eastern
region, where U.S. troops primarily operate, as a spreading Taliban
insurgency across the border in Pakistan fueled a surge in violence.

In a sober assessment, Gen. Dan K. McNeill, who departed June 3 after
16 months commanding NATO's International Security Assistance Force,
or ISAF, said that although record levels of foreign and Afghan troops
have constrained repeated Taliban offensives, stabilizing Afghanistan
will be impossible without a more robust military campaign against
insurgent havens in Pakistan.