Afghanistan Fighting Rises to Its Highest Level; Red Cross Finds It Difficult to Help Needy People

The Swiss Info website reports today (December 15, 2010) that the Red Cross is finding it more difficult to reach people in need in Afghanistan now than at any other time.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it expected fighting to increase in the coming year, just as it had in 2010 -- the deadliest year of the war in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

Violence is at its worst across Afghanistan, with the insurgency spreading out of traditional strongholds in the south and east into once peaceful areas in the north and west.

The IRC said many areas of Afghanistan -- particularly in the north -- are now inaccessible not only for the IRC, but for hundreds of other aid groups as well.