Taleban attacks ‘a show of strength’
KABUL: A spate of deadly Taleban attacks targeting Afghan forces this week was a show of strength against Donald Trump’s new strategy, and signaled a push to strike security bases rather than cities, analysts said. In three of the four ambushes since Tuesday, militants used bomb-laden Humvees to blast their way into targets, seeking to demoralize war-weary security forces, and steal weapons and vehicles to fuel their insurgency.
It marks a change in focus from recent years when the Taleban fought to control and hold provincial capitals, such as the northern city of Kunduz, which briefly fell to the militants twice in the past 24 months. “(The Taleban) want to be showing their potency after the summer unveiling of the Trump policy of staying on with larger forces,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“They haven’t tried to hold provincial capitals... they are not wasting their assets on that.” Militants have launched several devastating assaults on security forces already this year, including an attack on a base in northern Mazar-i-Sharif in the spring in which at least 144 people were killed. But this week stands apart for the number of attacks on security forces in such a short time-five in as many days with around 150 military, police and civilians killed-and coming after the US and Afghan forces have stepped up their own offensives.
Two separate attacks on mosques-one of which was claimed by the Islamic State group-took the overall death toll to around 200 for the week. In August, Trump announced that American forces would stay in Afghanistan indefinitely, increasing attacks on insurgents and deploying more troops. Following his announcement the US has dramatically ramped up airstrikes, with more bombs and missiles dropped in September than in any month since October 2010. A recent flurry of drone strikes in the lawless region near the border with Pakistan’s tribal areas has also seen dozens of militants killed.
This week’s attacks are the Taleban’s response, a spokesman said, calling it “a clear message... The enemy who thought they had scared us with the new Trump strategy have now been given a lesson”. The attacks also came after talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China at the start of the week seeking ways to end the Taleban’s 16-year insurgency. “I think the Taleban wanted to send a very strong message that it prefers to fight rather than talk and that it has the ability to fight very well,” said analyst Michael Kugelman, of the Wilson Center in Washington.
Loss of morale
The message has proved devastating: hundreds killed and wounded over a bloody few days that left military bases and police headquarters destroyed or severely damaged. The deadliest attack was on a police compound in the city of Gardez, where Taleban militants detonated three explosive-packed vehicles including a Humvee. At least 60 people were killed in the blasts and ensuing battle, officials said. The militants also attacked a police headquarters in Ghazni twice, and detonated a suicide bomb on Afghan police trainees in Kabul that killed 15. Attacking security targets kills three birds with one stone: it allows the Taleban to deflect criticism over civilian casualties, devastate Afghan forces, and steal equipment.
The Taleban has acquired “dozens” of armored Humvees and pickup trucks in recent years, defense ministry deputy spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh said. “The Humvees and other military vehicles are stronger than ordinary ones and you can load a lot of explosives in it,” General Abdul Wahid Taqat, a former intelligence chief said. “I would think that could be pretty demoralizing for Afghan forces knowing that their own weaponry is being used against them by the enemy,” Kugelman said. Such erosion of morale can be lethal, as officials have previously pointed out. —AFP