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The number of weapons released by U.S. and allied aircraft in Afghanistan sharply spiked in April, hitting the highest point in nearly five years.

According to an airpower summary posted online this week by U.S. Air Forces Central Command, coalition aircraft released 460 weapons last month, more than double the 203 weapons released in March. It was the most in a single month since August 2012, when 589 weapons were released. The only months that came close in recent years were August and September 2014, when 437 and 441 weapons were released, respectively. But most other months saw fewer than 200 weapons released.

In a statement Friday, Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, the public affairs director for the Resolute Support mission, said that the renewed focus on eliminating an Islamic State subsidiary called ISIS-Khorasan is leading the coalition to conduct more offensive operations, which is contributing to the increase in weapons released. Also, Salvin said, this is the first spring fighting season since former President Obama expanded the military's authority to attack Taliban forces last June.

April was also the month when the Air Force dropped a massive GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb on a network of ISIS-Khorasan tunnels in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

AFCENT spokeswoman Capt. Kathleen Atanasoff said Friday that the complex nature of the fight against ISIS, and the need to prevent civilian casualties, is why coalition aircraft have eased off slightly on its weapons released.

"In general, the coalition moves at the speed of our partner forces on the ground," Atanasoff said. "Right now, the preponderance of our effort is around Mosul [in Iraq] and Raqqah [in Syria], which are both very dense, difficult battlespaces in which to maneuver. Given that protection of civilians is crucial to the success of this campaign, the coalition is being very deliberate and careful in applying airpower effects in urban battlefields."

Syria, with the Russian military also operating in the area,is a particularly complicated situation, also leading the coalition to exercise caution.

"Following the [Tomahawk missile] strike in early April, we were extremely diligent and methodical in regards to where and when we flew in Syria to mitigate any strategic miscalculations," Atanasoff said.

However, these statistics do not account for all coalition weapons released. AFCENT has previously said that its statistics account for weapons released by aircraft under Combined Forces Air Component Commander, or CFACC, control, which includes aircraft from all U.S. military branches and coalition aircraft. But not all aircraft flying in the area fall under CFACC control.

Military Times also found that potentially thousands of airstrikes, such as strikes conducted over the years by attack helicopters and armed drones operated by the Army, were not included in AFCENT's statistics. This means that the number of weapons released so far this year is likely higher than the statistics show.

The same pattern held for Operation Inherent Resolve, though less dramatically. Sorties with weapons released increased from 3,705 in the first third of 2016 to 4,063 in the first four months of 2017, while the number of overall sorties over those periods dropped from 7,943 to 6,415.

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US, coalition strikes in Afghanistan spike, hit highest number in five years - AirForceTimes.com

New York Times

With 'War Machine,' Netflix Bets on Brad Pitt in Afghanistan New York Times The movie, which has its theatrical and TV premiere on Friday, May 26, is adapted from Michael Hastings's 2012 book, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan. Mr. Pitt plays Gen. Glen McMahon, an arguably ... and more »

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With 'War Machine,' Netflix Bets on Brad Pitt in Afghanistan - New York Times

New York Times

New and Noteworthy Books on Military History, from Afghanistan to Waterloo New York Times Ship battle in Syracuse Harbor during the Peloponnesian War. Credit Time Life Pictures/Mansell, via The LIFE Picture Collection, via Getty Images. Two very good and very different new books reflect the extraordinary range of military history being ...

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New and Noteworthy Books on Military History, from Afghanistan to Waterloo - New York Times

In London on May 23, 2017.(Photo: Jack Taylor, Getty Images)

Witnesses to Monday night's horrific attack in Manchester, England, describedthe confusion, the smoke, the blood splattered all over the floor. After a suicide bomber detonated his device following a concert, people mentionedthe empty shoes: Blasts tend to blow victims right out of their footwear.

Most of all, survivorsremembered the children killed or maimed. The bombercoldly calculated that pop star Ariana Grande would draw young teenage girls, and the venue was indeed packed. An 8-year-old girl named Saffie Rose Roussos was the youngest to die.

The more than 20deaths and dozens ofhospitalizations made the Manchester attack, for whichthe Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has claimed responsibility,England's worstsince 2005 and the fourth deadliest in Western Europe since 2015."We struggle to comprehend the warped and twisted mind that sees a room packed with young children ... as an opportunity for carnage," British Prime Minister Theresa May said.

Suicide bombings are among terrorists' most insidioustactics and one for which Western nations have mostlyand fortunately been spared since 9/11. They are, bycontrast, a cruel factof life inthe Middle East and South Asia.

Just this year, dozens died when two suicide bombers detonated explosives near the Afghanistan parliament; at least 36 were killed when a driver exploded abomb-ladentruck in Iraq; and a suicide bomber at aPakistan religious shrine killed 75 people.

After Manchester, there will be calls to harden "soft targets." Bags were searched at the Manchester Arena on Monday, though witnesses say without much diligence. Even so, heightened security is animperfectresponse to suicide bombers. An evil, suicidalzealot willing to sacrifice himself or herselfina crowded placeis almost impossible to stop in real time.If denied accessto a concert, there is always a bustling train station or a shopping mall.

Other reactionsare worse than imperfect. People will clamor for more"extreme vetting" of immigrants. But the bomber in Manchester, identified as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, was born in thatcity, the child of Libyan immigrants.

So how to better defend against these attacks?

One way is to remember that citizens are on the front lines, and that their roles are essential. Before a suicide bomber straps on an explosive, there's a troubled life that must be lived out to the point of radicalism. Friends, neighbors and relatives are the witnesses to this behavioral change and are subsequently suspicious. Only to the extent they share what they know with a trusted police department can lives be saved.

But this also cuts both ways. Law enforcement and community leaders have to make it easy for first- or second-generation immigrants to step forward with their valuable insights about people who've become radicalized. Inflammatory rhetoric about banning all Muslims, or labeling Islam a hateful religion, only makes this more difficult.

Even with the right intelligence,law enforcement needs the resources to monitor threats. This was difficult in Britain. TheEconomist reported the domestic intelligence service knew of 3,000 potential extremists, but only hadthe manpower to monitor about 40 at a time.

As we've said after previous terror attacks, the war against violentIslamistextremismis not onethat will be over soon. It can'tbe won by playing defense or containing the threat. The international community must take the fight to ISIS, which has established strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

Yet even as a U.S.-led coalition closes in on Raqqa in Syria, the de facto capital of ISIS, the kind oftwisted ideology that motivated the Manchester attack will continue to fester in the shadows and erupt in places as joyful and innocent as a pop star's performance.

USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by itsEditorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view a unique USA TODAY feature.

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Manchester: On the front line with Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan - USA TODAY

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan

At least 10 people died and six were wounded following a roadside bomb blast in Heart, western Afghanistan on Friday.

According to Lal Mohammad Omarzoy, the governor of Herats Adraksan district, all the victims of the bomb were civilians.

"A passenger car hit a roadside bomb in the Sherzad area today, he said.

This comes exactly a week after a landmine blast claimed 11 family members in the southeastern Logar province last Friday.

Neither deadly incident has been claimed by any group, but such attacks are usually attributed to Taliban insurgents.

This February, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in its annual report that civilians again bore the brunt of violence in Afghanistan in 2016.

The report documented 11,418 conflict-related civilian casualties, including 3,498 people killed and 7,920 injured in 2016. Of these, 3,512 were children -- 923 dead and 2,589 injured, up 24 percent from the previous highest-ever recorded figure.

The conflict-related violence exacted a heavy toll on in the country, with an overall deterioration in civilian protection and the highest-total civilian casualties recorded since 2009, when the UN mission began systematic documentation of casualties, it said.

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Afghanistan: Roadside bomb claims 10 civilians - Anadolu Agency