Violence in Afghanistan is increasing sharply as Obama hails progress in the Afghan war

As President Obama continues to hail so-called progress in the war in Afghanistan and continues to facilitate his Afghan exit strategy, violence in the country is increasing at an alarming pace.

Par for the course for the President....

Georgia said Wednesday that the country has closed two of its bases in Afghanistan after 10 of its soldiers were killed by militant attacks within the last four weeks... The bombings were part of a wave of militant attacks in recent weeks, pushing violence to some of the highest levels of the 12-year war as Afghan forces take over most security responsibility from international troops set to withdraw next year.

Violence continues to escalate this month in Afghanistan, with the Taliban and other insurgents targeting NATO troops, government forces, politicians and civilians. On Tuesday, 17 people died in Kabul when a Taliban car bomber hit buses carrying employees of the Supreme Court, the deadliest attack in the capital in a year and a half.

Wednesday morning, a motorcycle bomb killed an Afghan soldier and civilian in the south of the country, officials said...

In eastern Afghanistan, militants attacked a NATO convoy carrying supplies on Tuesday night, killing two Afghan police officers and two truck drivers...

And....

The Taliban forced dozens of primary schools in southern Afghanistan to close for two months when provincial officials banned motorbikes — the insurgents’ favored form of transport, according to the United Nations. [The Taliban use motorbikes to conduct drive-by attacks on U.S. and NATO troops, and for suicide attacks.]

The government caved in after watching children go without school and their families sometimes without food, because the schools were used as aid distribution centers.

The closure of schools were detailed in a report warning that the conflict in Afghanistan is getting more complex, and the civilian death toll is rising. It was published [Wednesday] the day after a suicide bomber killed 17 people as they boarded commuter buses near the supreme court

“A growing number of local militia and other armed groups are targeting civilians through intimidation, coercion, extortion, abuse and targeted killings,” the Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin said...

Nato forces are heading home, leaving Afghan troops to lead the battle against the Taliban in most of the country, but the withdrawal of foreign forces is not bringing the reduction in violence that some had hoped for. [Quite the contrary; violence in Afghanistan is spiking.]

The number of civilians admitted to hospitals for war-related injuries rose sharply this year compared with 2012, and conflict-related admissions nearly doubled in Helmand province...

The number of people who have fled to other parts of Afghanistan because of violence has risen more than half a million for the first time.