Afghan Army, Police And US Special Forces Under Attack
Fifteen more fatalities were confirmed on Saturday from a barrage of bombings in Kabul, taking the toll to 51 in the deadliest day for the city in years as Afghanistan battles an escalating Taliban insurgency .
The explosions on Friday , which devastated buildings and overwhelmed hospitals with hundreds of casualties, were the first major militant assaults on Kabul since the announcement of Taliban leader Mullah Omar's death.
The attacks underscored the country's volatile security situation amid a faltering peace process and the potency of the Taliban insurgency , despite it being riven by growing internal divisions. In the first attack, a powerful truck bomb tore through the centre of Kabul just after midnight on Friday , killing 15 civilians and wounding 240 others. Less than 24 hours later, 27 cadets and civilians were killed when a suicide bomber dressed in police uniform blew himself up at the Kabul Police Academy .
Explosions and gunfire also erupted when Camp Integrity ,a US special forces base in Kabul, came under attack late Friday , killing nine people, including a Nato service member.
The Taliban distanced themselves from the truck bombing which struck near a Kabul military base -as they usually do in attacks that result in mass civilian casualties.
But they claimed responsibility for both other attacks, which marked a serious breach of security at a premier training institute for Afghan forces and a foreign coalition facility.
The three assaults made Friday the deadliest 24 hours in Kabul since December 2011, when more than 50 people were killed in a suicide attack during the Shia holy day of Ashura.
Experts say the escalating violence demonstrates Mullah Mansour's attempt to boost his image among Taliban cadres and drive attention away from internal rifts over his leadership. “The new wave of attacks is a tactic by the Taliban's new leadership to show they are capable, potent and operational,“ said security analyst Abdul Hadi Khaled.
2014 among deadliest years in Af with 10k civilian casualties
Subodh Varma
Awave of deadly attacks by the Taliban left Af ghanistan's besieged capital reeling on Friday , leaving 51 people, mostly civilians, dead and hundreds injured.
This continues the increasingly bold Taliban attacks, concentrated on what they call “foreign occupation forces“ in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) released its six monthly report on the security and political situation in the country . It said that 2015 was heading towards another violent and bloody year with civilian casualties up by one percent compared to 2014 for the first six months.
The total civilian casualties -dead and injured both -recorded by Unama between January to June 2015 were 4,921 compared to 4,894 in the same period in 2014. The number of civilian deaths declined from 1,686 to 1,592, but the number of injured increased from 3,329 in 2015, compared to 3,208 in 2014.
Last year was the deadliest year in recent times with over 10,000 civilian casualties in the embattled country . US led forces had invaded and occupied Afghanistan in 2001 after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington by al-Qaida terrorists.
Since Unama started keeping records in 2009, an estimated 52,653 civilian casualties have taken place -19,368 deaths and 33,285 injured.These casualties are a result of the war between the Taliban and their associates on the one hand and the US led forces, including Afghan army and police, on the other. Nato backed Western forces officially `withdrew' from Afghanistan in December 2014 but a new international force immediately took over. Called the Resolute Support Mission (RSM), it compris es of over 13,000 soldiers from 42 countries, the bulk of them, over 6800, from the US. Germany , Georgia, Australia and UK have soldiers numbering in hundredswhile the other countries have a few dozen each.
The RSM was President Obama's way of officially withdrawing and yet leaving a military force behind to sustain their bases and to assist the Afghan local security forces.
This year has seen a subtle shift in the strategy of the Taliban, evident from the nature of casualties. While the two top reasons for loss of civilian life continue to be ground engagement between Taliban and government forces, and improvised bombs, the past six months have seen an increase in `complex' and suicide attacks in civilian areas, as also in targeted killings. Complex attacks are those which involve a group of persons with multiple weapon types, including at least one suicide weapon. Casualties from such attacks increased 78% in the first half of this year compared to 2014.
Targeted killings of individuals, especially government officials, increased by 57% in the same period. Abductions also increased by 37% over the past year.
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