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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Kabul attack

By Editorial Board
January 23, 2018

This past Sunday’s Taliban attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul is further proof that the Afghan government is no closer to defeating the militant group. Just a week after the US issued a security alert saying militants might target hotels, six Taliban gunmen were able to raid the hotel and lay siege to it for 12 hours, killing at least 22 people, many of whom were foreigners. All six gunmen were eventually killed by Afghan and Norwegian forces but questions remain about how they were able to so easily take over the hotel, security control of which had been transferred to a private company less than a month ago. What this attack does show is that the Afghan government is unable to limit the ability of the Afghan Taliban to launch attacks in ostensibly high-security areas. Just last week, President Ashraf Ghani had admitted that the Afghan army wouldn’t last more than six months without the help of the US. This attack will only confirm that belief. In the last year, the Afghan Taliban and the Islamic State have launched deadlier attacks than at any time since the last decade. An additional 1000 American troops are expected to arrive in the country over the next few months but there is little they can do to militarily rout the Taliban. The only option for peace in Afghanistan is through a negotiated settlement.

That is not a possibility the Afghan government seems to be pursuing with any enthusiasm right now. Its preferred strategy is to blame Pakistan for any trouble in the country. Even though the Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, it is notable that the Afghan interior ministry immediately blamed the Haqqani Network. The two militant groups are closely allied but still remain separate entities. But in recent months the US has been blaming Pakistan for supposedly helping the Haqqanis, and it seems that the Afghans may be trying to link Pakistan to the attack. The Pakistan Foreign Office, while expressing sympathy for the victims of the attack, has categorically rejected what it called the “knee-jerk allegations” of the Afghans. Pakistan has also called for a full investigation into the attack including into any possible security lapses. Such attacks should ideally bring the two countries closer together as they realise they face a common enemy in the form of militancy. Instead they scapegoat each other as a way of distracting from their own failures. This Kabul hotel attack now provides an opportunity, should the Afghan government chose to avail it, to accept that the Taliban are not going away anytime soon and to then work with its neighbours to bring about peace in the country.