NATO's June death toll in Afghanistan nears 100

The death toll for foreign soldiers in Afghanistan neared the grim milestone of 100 for June alone Monday as the CIA chief warned the anti-Taliban war would be tougher and longer than expected. Britain's Ministry of Defence said a soldier had been killed in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday, taking the June toll as tallied by AFP to 99 -- already the worst monthly total in nearly nine years of fighting. The British death came after four Norwegian soldiers died when their vehicle was hit by a bomb in the northern province of Faryab on Sunday. Norwegian Defence Minister Grete Faremo said she would travel to Afghanistan to bring home the bodies. The toll for the year to date is 319, compared to 520 for all of 2009. NATO says the dramatic upswing in casualty numbers in June has been caused by its stepping up military operations and taking the fight to the Taliban in areas where the Islamist militia has previously been unchallenged. It comes as questions mount in the United States and Europe about military strategy in Afghanistan following last week's sacking of the top NATO commander, US General Stanley McChrystal. Carl Levin, chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee and a key Democrat, told reporters that backing among American voters for the war effort would depend on looming operations in Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold. "I would say in September and October, when we expect an acceleration of operations in Kandahar, will have a major effect on it," Levin said. Eight civilians including women and children were also killed on Monday when a Taliban-style bomb ripped through a mini-van in the central province of Ghazni, police said. NATO said meanwhile it had killed several rebels in a pre-dawn raid near the troubled southern city of Kandahar, but villagers said the dead were all civilians. Police said they were investigating claims that the dead were local men who had been sleeping on roofs to escape the heat. The issue of civilian casualties is incendiary among Afghans, who blame them on foreign troops despite a UN report this year that showed that most civilian deaths are caused by Taliban attacks. McChrystal won plaudits in Afghanistan for introducing battlefield measures aimed at reducing civilian casualties, principally with an approach known as "courageous restraint" which encourages soldiers to hold fire until they are sure their targets are bona fide insurgents. The policy has been criticised among the ranks, where it is blamed for the rising number of deaths and injuries suffered by NATO troops. McChrystal was forced to step down after disparaging remarks about US administration officials, including President Barack Obama, emerged in an explosive article in Rolling Stone magazine. The article raised questions about whether McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy, under which an extra 30,000 US troops were scheduled for deployment in Afghanistan, is working and fully supported by the US administration. CIA director Leon Panetta acknowledged "serious problems" with the Afghan war. "We're dealing with a country that has problems with governance, problems with corruption, problems with narcotics trafficking, problems with a Taliban insurgency," Panetta told ABC television. "We are making progress. But it's harder and slower than anyone anticipated." Karzai's office meanwhile angrily dismissed as baseless a media report that he had met face-to-face with an Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban leader in Kabul, Sirajuddin Haqqani, as a prelude to peace talks. Much of southern Afghanistan is blighted by the Taliban insurgency, now in its deadliest phase since the US-led invasion ousted the hardline Islamist regime in late 2001 and installed a Western-backed administration. McChrystal has been replaced by General David Petraeus, the architect of the successful surge strategy in Iraq that is credited with bringing the country back from the brink of civil war.