Blowback in Afghanistan

This week has been among the bloodiest in Afghanistan since the US invasion in 2001. On Friday, at least 60 people were killed after militant attacks at an imambargah in Kabul and a mosque in Ghor. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the former attack while the Afghan Taliban are being blamed for the latter. Just a day before that, the Taliban killed at least 60 Afghan security forces, most of them at an attack on army camp in Kandahar. On Tuesday    and     Wednesday, the Taliban were able to kill more than a hundred people in different attacks on government and security forces buildings and installations. The total death toll for the week from militant attacks is now close to 200. Not only are the Taliban able to carry out attacks more regularly, the attacks seem to be even more devastating than before. Both the regularity of attacks and their higher death tolls may be explained by the beefed-up American military presence in the country. Since US President Donald Trump announced his new strategy of beefing up military presence and giving more flexibility to commanders in the field, the average number of missions flown by the US per month has increased from 50 to nearly 90. It is also believed to be using greater firepower than power. Naturally, this has led to blowback from the Taliban. The militant outfit knows it can outlast the US and fighting back through such attacks is one way of putting the US and the Afghan government on the defensive.

With the US ramping up its own operations, the Taliban have been given more opportunities to steal and use American equipment. The attack on the army camp in Kandahar used two US-made Humvees packed with explosives to destroy the base. The use of captured vehicles has become increasingly common in militant attacks. All of this has coincided with the Taliban taking over more territory, with nearly 40 percent of the country now under their control – the most they have ruled over since 2001. This is why the Taliban have not joined peace talks with the Afghan government, even skipping the Quadrilateral Coordination Group conference in Muscat. The Taliban feel they can continue to pressure the government and the US through regular attacks while holding on to territory they already occupy. This, they believe, will give them greater leverage when they eventually exhaust the US appetite for war-making and come to the negotiating table. Till then, it is the long-suffering people of Afghanistan who have to pay the price for the folly of the US.