away and the number of foreign troops in that country increasing steadily, we turn again to karin von hippel. for some analysis. she joins us from washington. nice to have you back. >> thank you. >> we had a record number of casualties last month and august is already off to a bad start. why are so many more troops dying, and has there been a change in the mission that causes this? >> unfortunately, i think this was anticipated. not only is the summer of the fighting season in afghanistan, but also of course we deployed -- or starting to deploy an additional 21,000 u.s. troops. the europeans, another nato allies, are bringing in extra troops for security for the elections. and so on the military leadership side, they anticipated more casualties because there will be more fighting. now the hope was that the greater fighting will provide greater security in the long term. and so the offensive that has been under way over the past few weeks should hopefully lead to security in the longer term. >> and i want to ask you about this bombing that took place in western afghanistan. this is an area th

that the taliban don't come back and take these areas again like they have done in the past. >> karin von hippel, we appreciate very much your insights. thank you. >> thank you. >>> in neighboring pakistan today, members of the minority christian community staged protests after eight christians were killed over the weekend in an new, wave vience against the my muslim extremists. 100 of muslims stormed a christian neighborhood after reports that a koran had been desecrated. dozens of houses were burned in the rampage. six people died in the fires and two others were shot to death. today, christian schools were closed throughout pakistan to protest the violence, while hundreds of people took to the streets doe mand justice. christians account for only about 1.5% of pakistan's 167 million people. >>> among those reacting to the violence, "worldfocus" contributing blogger feisal cap atia, a writer and entrepreneur based in karachi. he says, "i am ashamed. we're always worried about our image these days and the image of our country. we tout the fact that islam is a religion of peace. we scream to the