From the New York Times on Michael Barbarale, this is the beauty.

Today, earlier this month, the US government announced it would withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan.

In the time since, Afghanistan has experienced one of the most violent and deadly periods in its 16-year war.

How the two are connected?

It's Tuesday, January 30th.

Would you tell us about this past week of violence in Afghanistan?

Well, the last attack was this morning.

Mujeeb Michal covers Afghanistan for the times.

It was snowing this morning, so it was a cold morning and about 5 o'clock in the dark of the night.

About five attackers got into this military university at the heart of Kabul.

Breaking overnight, nearly a dozen killed in a terror attack on the Afghan military base, just the latest assault in a surge of violence and Kabul.

The Afghan capital woke to the crack of gunfire early Monday, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks after a weekend of grief.

And they fought for about five hours and they killed 11 soldiers in wounded at a 16.

A lot was used by one of the attackers to iron on the wall.

By 10 o'clock, you know, the attack was over, but it shook much of the city just because it was coming off the back of a couple weeks of repeated attacks.

The assault comes after a Saturday bombing in Kabul killed more than 100 people.

It's just another day in Kabul with another security and intelligence failure.

Families are burying their dead. There have been three attacks in the space of a week.

So the deadliest of the attacks of the past two weeks was on Saturday, where the Taliban packed an ambulance with explosives.

And they drove it right to the center of the city.

You're saying an ambulance? Why an ambulance?

Because the city is pretty militarized.

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