The Afghan Capital Of Kabul Is Increasing Beginning To Look Like A City Under Siege

A police vehicle was hit by magnetic bomb in Kabul, Afghanistan, last month. Reuters

New York Times: With Delay in Afghan Peace Talks, a Creeping Sense of ‘Siege’ Around Kabul

Instead of mass-casualty attacks, the Taliban are carrying out targeted assaults in the capital and neighboring districts. The country’s security forces seem unable to control them.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Mornings in the city begin with “sticky bombs,” explosives slapped onto vehicles that go up in flames. With night comes the dread of hit-and-run assassinations in the nearby suburbs — government employees shot dead by motorcycle-riding insurgents who roam free.

As peace talks to end Afghanistan’s long war face delays, the Taliban may be sparing Kabul, the capital, from mass-casualty attacks as part of an understanding with the United States. But the insurgents have instead shifted to a tactic that is eroding the Afghan government’s standing with each passing day: frequent targeted assaults that the country’s security forces seem unable to control.

The city has taken on an air of slow-creeping siege.

At least 17 small explosions and assassinations have been carried out in Kabul in the past week, according to a tally by The New York Times. Three magnetic bombs went off within one hour on Saturday morning, and at least two more targeted attacks followed before the end of the day.

The evening before, insurgents had killed at least three soldiers in Paghman district, 10 miles west of the city, and another in Qarabagh district, 30 miles north. By the end of the day, the police chief of Kabul had been fired, an official acknowledgment that security efforts were not working.

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WNU Editor: this war shows no signs of ending, peace talks or no peace talks .... Afghanistan: At least 14 security forces killed in three attacks (Al Jazeera). More here .... 114 Taliban killed amid surging war, stalled talks (AA).