Islamic State hideout found in Kabul district
KABUL, Afghanistan — The discovery of an Islamic State hideout filled with explosives and suicide vests in a poor Kabul neighborhood reflects the failure of Afghanistan’s corruption-wracked government to protect the capital, analysts and residents said Friday.
This week’s revelation that militants were operating in Kabul’s western Qala-e-Wahid district follows a recent series of horrific attacks in the heavily guarded city that killed nearly 200 people and wounded hundreds more, including foreigners.
Security forces were led to the safe house by an insurgent who was captured during an attack Monday by Islamic State militants on a military academy in Kabul in which 11 soldiers died, according to an intelligence official.
From behind the 10-foot green metal doors, the insurgents were plotting to use the explosives, weapons and suicide vests in three more large attacks in Kabul, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with his agency’s rules and did not elaborate on the plans.
Khan Mohammed, a resident of Qala-e-Wahid, said locals rarely see a police patrol in the neighborhood and stay at home after dark because of marauding gangs of thieves. They say the government can’t provide security.
“It is dangerous for all the people of Qala-e-Wahid that Daesh was here, but they came here because it is an insecure area,” Mohammed said, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group.
“For Daesh, this was the perfect area because you can bring everything here from anywhere,” added Mohammed, whose home is across the lane from the Islamic State hideout.
Political analyst Haroon Mir blamed widespread corruption throughout the government and the security forces for their inability to prevent the recent deadly attacks in Kabul, which included a siege at a luxury hotel and a car bomb packed inside an ambulance.
“It is the utter failure of the intelligence services. It is the utter failure of the security services. It is the utter failure of every institution,” Mir said.
“You can’t blame it on lack of resources or lack of international support,” he said, adding that billions of dollars in international money flowing into Afghanistan in the past 16 years has been siphoned off by those in positions of power.
That has left most Afghans feeling vulnerable.
“There is no security in this country,” said Mohammad Hajan, an elderly man interviewed near the Islamic State safe house. “In the morning, I wake up and I don’t know if I will be alive in the evening.”