Violent fighting erupted on Thursday in southern Afghanistan when scores of Taliban rebels assailed an Afghan Army convoy on the main highway, south of the capital Kabul, the New York Times reported. Afghan authorities declared that the Taliban insurgents were also beaten by soldiers and police officers, and that 35 attackers were killed, including several foreign fighters, and five were taken into custody.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, preoccupied by the increasing cruelty in the country and against NATO-led forces, stated that the foreign fighters and terrorists intended to knock Afghanistan off balance as they have already done in neighboring Pakistan and other parts of the world. Furthermore, he requested a regional political approach to the danger, by saying “I cannot imagine anyone who would consider it acceptable that many terrorists from all over the world gather in a certain area and create mischief and havoc there.”

Afghan and Western officials have warned that additional foreign fighters and trainers have been settling in Pakistan’s tribal areas and infiltrating Afghanistan in order to mount attacks. It has been suggested that the invasion may be a notice that  Al Qaeda and its members are now more drawn to Afghanistan rather than Iraq. The foreign fighters include Arabs, Turks, Chechens, Central Asians and Pakistanis, and some have been executed or detained in Afghanistan, according to a Western official in Kabul who spoke on condition of anonymity cited by the New York Times.

President  Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who has regularly made complaints regarding terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan generating insecurity in Afghanistan, said various Afghan provinces in the vicinity of the border were now seriously jeopardized.