All is not quiet on that other front:
Attacks in Afghanistan have begun to emulate those in Iraq: suicide bombings, which are not a traditional Afghan approach; similar types of explosive devices set off by remote control; missile attacks from longer range; and the targeting of foreign aid organisations and the UN.
. . .
One of the most worrying developments has been the systematic killing of aid workers, now totalling 15. Colonel Mike Griffiths, the commander of the British troops in Afghanistan, told The Independent: “There is no doubt. There are now indications of methodology transfer from Iraq. Some of the things we have seen in Iraq, we are beginning to see here.”
Eighteen months after the fall of their Islamist regime, the Taliban and their al-Qa’ida allies are resurgent, while the forces of the Kabul government are in retreat in large swaths of the south and east. The deputy governor of Zabul admits most of his province is now in Taliban hands, officials report that the situation is much the same in neighbouring Oruzgan, while about half the territory in Kandahar has slipped out of government control. In the dusty town of Spin Boldak close to the border with Pakistan in the east, where the Taliban was born, black and green flags celebrate its rebirth.
American forces in Afghanistan and the multinational International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) have come under fire more times in the past three months than the previous 15. This year, 25 American and Isaf soldiers have been killed and 28 injured. The number of Afghans, allied and enemy, killed, according to the US military, is “several thousand”. More than 400 Taliban fighters were said to have been killed in September.
The growing Iraqification of Afghanistan doesn’t sound good. Nontheless President Hamid Karzai says the insurgents are not destabilizing the country:
“It’s not working,” he said, referring to the rising number of Taliban attacks that have killed 300 Afghans, including 100 policemen and 13 aid workers, this year. “It’s working against them.”
This may or may not be the case. It sounds a little too much like political rhetoric, but who knows. It’s clear, however, that despite the talk of writing a constitution and all that good stuff Afghanistan is a long way from anything resembling autonomy.
I hope the foreign troops are comfy in Kabul.