Pakistan accused of aiding rebels

BBC: A high-level government official in Afghanistan has blamed neighbouring Pakistan for helping Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters cross the border.

Such fighters have been targeting Afghan and international forces.

Thousands of British troops have been arriving in Afghanistan to a security situation that has been deteriorating over the last few months.

Pakistan denies the allegations and says Afghanistan is trying to divert attention from its own failings.

'Active encouragement'

The Pakistan border stretches for hundreds of miles and Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters regularly cross it.

But the governor of Khost province in the southeast has accused the Pakistani intelligence agency for not just turning a blind eye to the movement of insurgents but for actively encouraging the fighters from crossing over to launch attacks on British and international forces.

There are hundreds of smuggling routes along the tribal areas between the two countries, and caves which were used by Osama Bin Laden and his fighters when the Taliban was in power.

But more than four years after the war, insurgents are returning to these areas and using them to launch suicide and roadside bomb attacks, or moving to the south, where British troops are based.