BOMBARDMENT

Taliban Launches New Attacks

Second Afghanistan assault in four days.

The Taliban's spring offensive is in full swing. Hundreds of insurgents armed with AK-47s, machine guns, and grenades attacked an Afghan police base on Tuesday in the remote province of Nuristan, a region largely dominated by the Taliban. This is the Islamist militant group's second major assault on Afghan forces in less than four days, and suspiciously clustered within a week of bin Laden's death. The Taliban claimed that its first attack in Kandahar, a buzzing economic hub in southern Afghanistan, was planned well before bin Laden was assassinated by U.S. forces. But now NATO has been the target of roadside bombs—one on Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan and two on Monday in the south—which took the lives of three officials.