Last week we posted on a special report that tracked worsening violence this year in Afghanistan by John McCreary, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency official who produces a deeply insightful daily analysis of international affairs called NightWatch.

    The full Afghanistan report, drawn exclusively from open sources and showing May as the bloodiest month since the 2001 U.S. intervention, is now available and some of the details make chilling reading.

     Among the most noteworthy is a finding that the capital, Kabul, and the surrounding provinces are among the areas that have been seeing some of the most intense Taliban violence.

    "An increase in attacks in and around Kabul is particularly noteworthy because it indicates a physical and psychological worsening of the security situation," says the report. "For the second time in two years, in May Kabul was one of the regions under the greatest stress. Moreover, there is a slow increase in the number of attacks and area of fighting in the provinces directly bordering Kabul."

    "Kabul is becoming slowly surrounded," it says.