Asia

Home page

Asia

Taliban mount series of attacks in Afghanistan

13 November 2010 20:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Taliban fighters attacked a foreign military base at the main airport in Afghanistan’s east on Saturday, one of four incidents in 24 hours that marked a sudden upswing in violence, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
In an apparent demonstration that the insurgency has not been weakened despite NATO-led forces saying they have made gains, militants mounted attacks in Jalalabad and Kunar in the east and northern town Kunduz, as well as in the capital Kabul on Friday.
The attacks will likely send a clear message to NATO leaders who will gather for a summit in Lisbon next week that the security question in Afghanistan is still far from resolved, and that the Taliban remain a formidable enemy.
The spike in violence could not come at a worse time for European NATO leaders, who are feeling increasing pressure at home amid sagging support for the drawn-out war.
Saturday’s attacks in Jalalabad, Kunduz and Kunar also came on the day that marked the ninth anniversary of the Taliban being overthrown in Kabul by U.S-backed Afghan forces for harboring al Qaeda before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The spike in violence also comes as U.S. President Barack Obama is due to review his Afghanistan war strategy next month.
His commanders have been talking up recent successes and he remains committed to starting a gradual troop drawdown from July 2011, but increased violence would send a terrible message after Obama’s Democrats were mauled in mid-term elections last week.
It also comes as acceptance of the need for a negotiated settlement grows, with peace talks being approached gingerly.
Analysts say that the Taliban have proved in the past that they can time attacks to coincide with important events elsewhere in the world and that a sudden jump in such attacks would not be surprising given the high stakes.
They could at the same time be looking to position themselves as a legitimate ruling force again after holding off the West’s military strategy for the past nine years.
"From one side, the Taliban would like to show that the United States could not defeat them militarily in the past nine years and from other side want to introduce themselves as an acceptable political force, too," said Ghulam Jelani Zwak, director of the Afghan Analytical and Advisory Center.
EXPLOSIONS, GUNFIRE
Violence is at its worst across Afghanistan since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, with civilian and military casualties at record levels despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops.
In Jalalabad, at least eight insurgents, including two suicide bombers, attacked a forward operating base run by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which shares the main airport in the key eastern city near Pakistan.
Smoke was seen rising from the area and explosions and gunfire were heard, a Reuters witness said. Helicopters flew overhead during the attack and the bodies of at least one suicide bomber and one other attacker were seen near the airport.
"We killed six insurgents, two with suicide vests," a spokesman for ISAF said.
Afghan and ISAF troops responded after coming under small-arms fire, the coalition said. It said no Afghan or ISAF troops were killed during the attack.
A Reuters witness said the bodies of three fighters, dressed in Afghan army uniforms and carrying rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and a heavy machinegun, were lying near the base.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said by telephone from an undisclosed location that 14 suicide bombers were involved in the attacks and that as many as 30 foreign soldiers had been killed. The Taliban often exaggerate the details of attacks and play down the numbers of their own casualties.
On October 30, the Taliban staged a massed assault on a small outpost in nearby Paktika province. ISAF said at least 40 insurgents were killed in that raid, although Afghan officials put the toll as high as 80.
Just north of Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, fighting between Taliban insurgents and Afghan and ISAF troops in Kunar province went on for several hours. Three Taliban fighters were killed, ISAF said.
In Kunduz, which has become a jumping-off point for attacks in the north over the past year, a bomb hidden on a motorcycle killed at least 10 civilians, including three children, and wounded 18, a district official and the Interior Ministry said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Kunduz attack, although Haqyar said it had likely been carried by "enemies of Afghanistan," a term commonly used to describe the Taliban.
On Friday, a suicide car bomber hit a convoy of Afghan and ISAF troops on Kabul’s outskirts, the first attack in the capital in three months. Two soldiers were wounded.