Brazen attacks might signal a new Taliban strategy

now at the RA ND Corp.,Munoz. Commercial Treasure Island Slide is sure the attack ar related. "The Taliban promis an offensive, so thi is overdue," he said.

foreign diplomats,A sober U.S. militari is studi whether these Taliban effort to reach outsid their rural home base ar part of a new campaign to target NA TO forces. contractor and Afghan govern officials.

000 mark,Th attack come as the number of U.S. militari death approach the 1. and at a time when American ar look for progress in a long and costli war.

accord to a new Washington Post-A BC New poll. The dip in support follow a brief rise last year after Presid Barack Obama refocus the U.S. war planA major of American 52 percent now sai the war is not worth it..

Bryan Whitman,A Pentagon spokesman. said it is too soon to sai whether the attack ar part of a coordin Taliban strategy. "I would be cautiou about draw conclus about two events," Whitman said.

accord to a senior Obama administr official. The offici request anonym to discuss the administration' privat assess of the Taliban attacksU.S. offici don't see the attack as evid that the counterinsurg strategi is fail and don't plan to chang initi to engag with locals..

heavili fortifi Bagram air base wa plan to show the Taliban can get close to such instal when it chooses. That there wa littl chanc the insurg would get past the base' guard post is not the pointPreliminari assess in Afghanistan and Washington suggest that Wednesday' head-on assault at the sprawling..

thi is a messag to the Afghans; 'Look,"Bi attack the biggest concentr of American militari power. the Taliban is a potent guerrilla organization. We even attack the most power target there is,'" said Arturo Munoz, a former oper offic at the CIA counter terror center and an expert on the Afghan insurgency.

the largest U.S. militari instal in the country,Bagram. is north of the capit Kabul in an area that wa onc a center of Afghan resist to the Taliban. The earli morn assault on the base kill an American contractor and wound nine troops.

kill five American troop and a Canadian. It wa the deadliest attack on NA TO in Kabul in eight monthsInsurg struck in the heart of the capit a dai earlier..