KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Afghanistan is second only to Iraq in the number of suicide bombings executed this year, it was reported Sunday.
Taliban insurgents, recruiting poorly educated, disaffected young men from religious schools in Pakistan, carried out 103 suicide bombings in Afghanistan in the first eight months of this year -- a 60 percent increase over the same period last year, The New York Times reported.
The record number of attacks killed more than 200 people, 80 percent of them civilians, said a United Nations' report expected to be made public Monday, The Times reported.
There were 17 suicide attacks in Afghanistan in 2005 and 123 in 2006, The Times reported.
In Iraq, 322 suicide bombings had been carried out in the first eight months of this year, with 179 occurring in all of 2006.
