Building on a winter campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations as well as the knowledge that U.S. troops will be leaving, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with men and weapons. Each spring with the arrival of warmer weather, the fighting season starts up in Afghanistan, but the scale of the militants’ presence and their sheer brazenness have alarmed Afghans and foreign officials far more than in previous years. Full Story