ONE CRAZY MONTH IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Afghan president Hamid Karzai a few days ago ("Between a rock and a hard place"), telling a press conference that he would down the American planes if he could, but it is not merely American fire that is upping the casual

ties, especially in the neighbouring North West Frontier Province in Pakistan.

This past month has been the bloodiest one yet so far this year, arising from an unpredecedented surge in violence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the North West Frontier Province at the Pakistani border.

Here's a sampling:

November 4: A suicide bomber killed seven people at a security post in Hangu district.

November 6: More than 25 tribesmen were killed in a suicide attack on a meeting of elders in Bajaur.

November 10: Militants hijacked 13 trailers transporting food and military equipment for NATO forces in Afghanistan. Hours later they turned over one of the two Humvees to journalists.

November 11: At the closing ceremony of the Third Inter-Provincial Games at the Qayyum Sports Complex, a suicide bomber blew himself up just at the main gate, killing three people.

November 12: A US aid worker Steve de Vance and his Pakistani driver were killed in provincial capital Peshawar's normally-secure University Town.

November 13: Iranian diplomat Hashmatullah Attaarzadeh ad his police guard were killed in one of Peshawar's posh suburbs.

Just two months ago, armed militants kidnapped the Afghan Consul General Abdul Khaliq Farahi from this same area.

November 14: An Afghan and a Japanese journalist were wounded by gunmen in Khyber.

November 19: The US launched the first-ever missile attack on settled areas in Pakistan, killing five people in the Alikhel area, including some reported to be al-Qaeda's foreign operatives.

November 20: Nine people including a tribal chief and his family are killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in Bajaur.

November 21: A suicide blast kills 10 people attending a funeral possession in Dera Ismail Khan.

November 22: A US drone hits a house in Khaisoor Village in the Norh Wazirstan region, killing five, two of whom are al-Qaeda leaders and a third said to be Rashid Rauf, the man wanted by Britain for a plot to bomb international flights in London.

November 24: A blast went off in the Hashnagri area of Peshawar.

November 26: The police clashed with the Taliban on the outskirts.