Marines Wounded In Afghan Clash

Suspected insurgents ambushed an American military convoy on a road in southern Afghanistan, setting off an explosion that wounded three Marines, one of them seriously, the U.S. military said Monday.

The attack occurred Saturday near the village of Dailanor, in restive Kandahar province, said Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager, a military spokesman. The wounded men were taken to a military hospital at the U.S. base in Kandahar, the main coalition headquarters in southern Afghanistan.

The attack on the Marines is an indication of stepped-up aggressiveness by insurgents — Taliban and al Qaeda holdouts also believed responsible for the ambush of the U.S. Army rangers last Thursday night that killed Specialist Pat Tillman, the former NFL player, and an Afghan soldier and wounded two others.

Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top American commander in Afghanistan, said Monday that the military has seen a recent surge in violence, but that most attacks were directed against soft targets, such as civilians or isolated Afghan security outposts.

"We are seeing the beginnings … in the last two weeks, of some degree of spring surge by the enemy forces," Barno said. "I think they are still dangerous, they still have the ability to conduct attacks, but those attacks are growing increasingly more focused on vulnerable populations."

The three men wounded on Saturday are part of a recently arrived contingent of 2,000 Marines that arrived in Afghanistan in recent weeks, bringing the total size of the U.S. led coalition to about 15,500 soldiers. They are the first soldiers from the force known to be wounded in action.

Some 110 U.S. soldiers have been killed — 39 of them in combat — since Operation Enduring Freedom began in Afghanistan in late 2001. Three of those soldiers have died since the start of Operation Mountain Storm in March. Seven others have been wounded in that time.

Several bombings have been reported in Kandahar in recent weeks, one outside a building where the governor was holding a meeting.

A two-car U.N. convoy carrying national and international staffers working on preparations for September elections was targeted in a bombing attack on a road last week just outside Kandahar, forcing the world body to temporarily suspend all operations in the region.

The United Nations and others have warned that the elections will fail unless security is improved.

A contingent of NATO leaders were visiting Afghanistan on Monday to discuss ways to expand a 6,500-strong peacekeeping force into several northern cities and towns in the run-up to the vote.

The visit comes as the alliance struggles to make good on a pledge to expand the mission into more cities in the north and west.

"There are a number of countries that are not present in Iraq … and they could do more in Afghanistan," said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO.

He mentioned Turkey and Germany as allied nations without troops in Iraq that could do more in Afghanistan, along with Spain, whose new government aims to pull its 1,300 troops out of Iraq.

Washington eventually wants to see NATO take over the entire military operation in Afghanistan, but Burns acknowledged that would not happen this year.

Gen. James L. Jones, NATO's top commander, told reporters he was confident the alliance would stick to its target to deploy peacekeeping teams in five more cities in the north and west by late June.

"I think the force is about 85-90 percent generated … That's the bulk of it," he said.

However, Jones acknowledged frustration at the delays in securing the troops and equipment needed for the mission, and NATO officials said the remaining shortfalls in helicopters, transport planes, medical facilities and communications would be difficult to fill.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai returned Sunday to a Taliban stronghold where he was nearly assassinated 19 months ago, and said he would welcome rank-and-file members of the militia back into society.

Karzai said the government has been in negotiations with less radical Taliban leaders for months, though he did not give any details or names.

But Karzai said about 150 leaders of the ultra-religious Islamic movement supplanted by his government after a U.S.-led war are unworthy of rehabilitation and could be prosecuted.

"Our problem is mainly with the top Taliban — who may number no more than 150 people — who had links with al Qaeda," Karzai said. "Those people are the enemies of Afghanistan and we are against them."

Karzai's approach appears to have Washington's support.