Militant attacks also increased by one-third in Afghanistan last year. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said the number of foreign militants has swelled because of the Iraq war.

Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak: “Since last year, as the result of the success in the surge in Iraq, there has been a flow of foreign terrorists into Afghanistan. There has been engagement this year, in 2008, that in some of these engagements actually 60 percent of the total force which we have encountered were foreign, foreign fighters.”