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There has been a surge in roadside bombings and assassinations in Afghanistan during the first four months of this year, a new UN report has revealed.
Attacks involving improvised explosive devices have skyrocketed 94 per cent, compared with the same period in 2009, the report submitted to the UN Security Council on Saturday, said.
The number of suicide attacks involving complex planning has doubled from last year to roughly two per month which demonstrates "a growing capability of the local terrorist networks linked to al-Qaeda," the report added.
"I think we are making headway," Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, had said on Wednesday.
There are currently an estimated 142,000 troops in Afghanistan and that number is expected to peak at 150,000 in August, before a planned withdrawal in 2011.