Taliban small-arms attacks against the US-led troops in Afghanistan have almost doubled in less than a year, Pentagon officials say.
According to the Pentagon officials, at least 18,000 attacks were launched by the Taliban against the US-led forces in 2010 as compared with 10,600 in 2009.
Army Captain Ryan Donald, a military spokesman in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said the rise is a result of bringing "the fight to them."
According to Donald, the coalition troops have been on the offensive in an attempt to dislodge the Taliban from their strongholds in southern Afghanistan and in the East along the mountainous border with Pakistan.
Taliban forces used automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and in some cases, missiles against NATO troops.
The rise in battles comes as the Obama administration prepares a year-end review of how its strategy is working in war-torn Afghanistan.
There are about 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan, including a "surge" of 30,000 troops ordered into combat by US President Barack Obama.
There are about 40,000 troops from allied countries fighting alongside the US and Afghan troops.
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