Murder in Kabul

Terror in Afghanistan

Murder in Kabul

Oct 28th 2009
From Economist.com

The Taliban kill several UN staff in Afghanistan, ahead of a presidential election

AFP

 

 

THE murder of at least five foreign, civilian, UN staff in a private guest house in Kabul, and a near-simultaneous rocket attack on the city’s most prestigious hotel, on Wednesday October 28th, are reminders of the apparently expanding reach of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. At least three suicide attackers, wearing explosives and carrying grenades and automatic weapons, made their way into the Bekhtar guest house, reportedly by posing as policemen. Frequented by foreigners, the guest house is in a central area of Kabul that had previously been considered relatively secure. Guards and the intruders exchanged gunfire, guests were killed (and nine more were injured), as well as four Afghans. Three attackers were eventually shot dead.

 

A Taliban spokesman promptly claimed responsibility for the murders, saying that they were “just a start” of an assault on “anyone engaged” in the process of preparing for a run-off presidential election that is scheduled for November 7th. The head of the UN mission, Kai Eide, responded to the worst single attack on his staff in the country by vowing to remain “committed to Afghanistan”. But the Taliban may hope that a bloody enough assault on UN workers might yet provoke the organisation either to reduce its activities in the country or to consider withdrawal, as happened in Iraq in 2003 after 22 staff were killed by bombers at its headquarters in Baghdad.

 

After a deeply fraudulent first-round presidential election in August, and amid rising casualty figures for western armies engaged in Afghanistan, foreign governments are increasingly hesitant about committing to prolong and expand military engagement in the country. Barack Obama is reviewing military strategy and considering whether to deploy as many as 40,000 extra soldiers to fight a war that is becoming more unpopular in America (and elsewhere). October has proved to be the bloodiest month so far for American soldiers in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001, with 53 soldiers killed by October 27th.

 

Mr Obama is unlikely to announce a decision on strategy until after the election. By then, it is hoped, Hamid Karzai, the president and likely winner, can be more credibly presented as a legitimate partner for outsiders. Stark evidence of ballot stuffing and other manipulation in Mr Karzai’s favour during the presidential election in August, suggest that many—perhaps most—Afghans do not see him as a credible leader. Nor was Mr Karzai’s position bolstered by a claim this week, by the New York Times, suggesting that the president’s brother, who is suspected of involvement in the country’s opium trade, has also been getting regular payments from the CIA. Ahmed Wali Karzai reportedly denied the allegations.

 

The Taliban are most likely to attempt more attacks in the coming ten days in an effort to encourage outsiders to waver further. By attacking the UN (and if the assailants indeed posed as policemen, by the method employed) the Afghan Taliban have followed an approach taken by Pakistani militants across the border, who assaulted an office of the World Food Programme earlier this month, killing five UN workers. Also on Wednesday Pakistan’s Taliban detonated a car bomb in a packed market in the north-western city of Peshawar, killing at least 87 civilians and injuring at least 200. That assault appears timed to coincide with the arrival in Pakistan of America’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, although it may equally be seen as a response to the Pakistani army’s offensive in South Waziristan, a Pakistani-Taliban heartland.

 

 

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