"We've had about a 40 percent increase in 'kinetic events': we define those as the number of enemy attacks that we've had on our coalition and our Afghan partners," US Army Major General Jeffrey Schloesser told reporters during a teleconference from Afghanistan.

"This number was not unexpected," he continued, adding that the frequency of attacks has increased each year since 2002.

"The enemies are aggressively burning schools, killing teachers and students," said Schloesser, adding that attacks in the region represent "about 12 percent" of military engagements against the Taliban.

The volatile situation on the porous 1,500-mile (2,500-kilometer) Pakistan-Afghanistan border was highlighted when Islamabad accused US-led coalition forces of a "cowardly" act in carrying out an airstrike earlier this month that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers.

Washington and other Western allies have been pressuring Islamabad to crack down on Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants allegedly based in Pakistan's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

"The enemy is taking refuge and operating with some freedom of movement in the border region," Schloesser said.

"Overall, what you see is the deliberate targeting of anything that will improve the quality of life of the normal Afghan citizen."

With US-Pakistan ties at their lowest ebb in years, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said recently that Kabul would be justified in launching attacks on militants on Pakistani soil, which provoked an angry response from Islamabad.

Violence in the region is on the upswing, despite the presence of some 70,000 troops multinational troops in Afghanistan, some under US command, some under NATO.

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