Afghan bomb attacks to increase this year: NATO

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Guerrilla attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan will rise this year as insurgents resort to such tactics in the face of a growing NATO presence, the alliance's top operations commander said on Monday.

A suicide bomber targeting a foreign military convoy killed 37 civilians near the Pakistan border on Monday, a day after more than 100 people were killed in the deadliest suspected suicide raid since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001.

"The numbers will go up," NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe John Craddock told a news conference of guerrilla attacks by Taliban and other insurgents on the 43,000-plus NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Apart from suicide bomber attacks, Craddock singled out roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), as a potential source of rising danger for NATO.

Craddock rejected suggestions, most recently from British politician Paddy Ashdown, that NATO was in disarray and insisted the rise in guerrilla attacks was because the Taliban had realized they could not take the alliance on in direct warfare.

"If we see any offensive (this year) it is going to be ISAF's offensive, just like last year," he said in the news conference at NATO's military headquarters in southern Belgium.

Craddock repeated his plea for NATO nations to fill longstanding shortfalls in the security force, saying commanders were still short of three battalions, or just over 2,000 ground troops, and needed more intelligence and surveillance resources.

(Reporting by Mark John; Editing by Ingrid Melander)