Taliban Warn Of More Targeted Attacks After Assassination Attempt On Top Minister

Kabul [Afghanistan]: The Taliban warned Wednesday of more attacks targeting Afghan government leaders, each day after the defence minister escaped an assassination attempt and because the insurgents fought to require control of a string of besieged cities across the country.
A bomb-and-gun attack on Defence Minister Bismillah Mohammadi Tuesday night brought the war to the capital for the primary time in months.

But fighting has raged within the countryside since May, when foreign forces began the last stage of a withdrawal thanks to end later this month.

The Afghan and US militaries have stepped up air strikes against the insurgents, and therefore the Taliban said Wednesday the Kabul raid was their response.

“The attack is that the beginning of the retaliatory operations against the circles and leaders of the Kabul administration who are ordering attacks and therefore the bombing of various parts of the country,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said during a statement on social media.

It represents a serious escalation by the Taliban, who have largely avoided large-scale attacks within the capital since starting talks with the US on their troop withdrawal.

A first bomb exploded within the centre of Kabul, sending a thick plume of smoke into the sky, AFP correspondents reported.

Less than two hours later, there was another loud blast followed by smaller explosions and rapid gunfire, all near the high-security Green Zone that houses several embassies, including the US mission.

The minister was safe and Afghan forces repelled the attackers, but interior ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said eight people were killed and lots of more wounded.

A security source said the insurgents detonated a bomb before storming a lawmaker’s house, from where they attacked the minister’s home.

After the primary blast, thousands of individuals in several cities heeded a social media campaign to chant “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) to point out support for the govt .

“The Taliban justified this attack because the start of retaliatory attacks against government personnel for his or her indiscriminate bombings,” Ibraheem Bahiss, a consultant with International Crisis Group, told AFP.

“However, it’s equally possible that the Taliban has been caught off guard by the prevalence of anti-Taliban sentiments in Afghanistan’s urban centres,” he added.

There was little respite in Kabul early Wednesday, with police saying another blast injured three people.

‘No thanks to escape’

The Taliban threat came after the Afghan military launched a counterattack within the southern city of Lashkar Gah, where insurgents have infiltrated several parts of the town in numbers.

The army told the city’s 200,000 people to evacuate on Tuesday as they prepared their offensive.

Resident Saleh Mohammad said many families had fled, but many were caught in crossfire.

“There is not any thanks to shake the world because the fighting is ongoing. there’s no guarantee that we’ll not be killed on the way,” Mohammad said.

“The government and therefore the Taliban are destroying us.”

The insurgents have taken control of vast swathes of the countryside and key border towns, taking advantage of the safety vacuum left by the withdrawal folks forces.

They are now targeting cities, with fierce fighting for every week around Herat, near the western border with Iran, also as Lashkar Gah and Kandahar within the south.

“Those families which had support or a car have left their homes,” resident Halim Karimi told AFP.

“We do not know where to travel or the way to leave. We are born to die.”

The loss of Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, would be a huge strategic and psychological blow for the govt .

The United Nations said it had received reports of mounting civilian deaths and damage to critical infrastructure in Helmand and Kandahar.

“Hospitals and doctors are getting overwhelmed by the amount of wounded people,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press briefing on Wednesday.

‘War crimes’

Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, accused the Taliban of “summarily” executing captured soldiers, police and civilians accused of getting ties to the govt in areas that they had seized.

The rights group said it had also obtained an inventory of 44 people killed by the Taliban in Spin Boldak, a town on the border with Pakistan that insurgents captured last month.

“Taliban commanders with oversight over such atrocities also are liable for war crimes,” Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at HRW, said during a statement.

The US and Britain have also accused the insurgents of committing atrocities they said may amount to “war crimes” within the town.

As the Taliban make battlefield gains, months of on-and-off talks between the insurgents and therefore the Afghan government within the Qatari capital of Doha have achieved little and appear to possess lost momentum.

The national security advisor of neighbouring Pakistan — which has strained ties with the Kabul government and has allegedly provided material and advisory support to the Taliban — called on each side to compromise and reach a peace settlement.

Wrapping up every week of talks in Washington on Wednesday, Moeed Yusuf played down Pakistan’s influence on the Taliban and said Kabul authorities got to cease pushing for military victory and include a broader range of Afghans in any future talks.