The Taliban claimed the deadly suicide attack that killed 18 people in the Afghan capital of Kabul today.
The suicide bomber targeted and hit a Coalition convoy as it traveled on the Darulaman Road in Kabul at approximately 8 a.m. The International Security Assistance Force confirmed the attack and stated that six of its soldiers were killed in the blast. Twelve Afghan civilians who were on the road were also killed in the attack.
“This sort of desperate brutality and aggression reminds us of the pessimism of an enemy who seek to kill the innocent and to stop the progress necessary for a better Afghanistan,” ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Josef Blotz said in a press release. “This will not deter us from our mission of securing a better future for this country.”
The Taliban stated that one of its fighters carried out the attack, in a statement released on its website, the Voice of Jihad. The Taliban claimed that a suicide bomber named Mujahid Isamuddin, who is a resident of the Qara Bagh district in Kabul, detonated a car bomb packed with “about 750 kg explosives.”
The Voice of Jihad website has been hacked since the issuing of the press release. Images of Taliban atrocities, including public executions, hangings, and burying a woman alive are displayed on the Taliban’s website and its sub-pages.
The Taliban have been instructed not to launch suicide attacks that risk the lives of civilians. The order, which came from Taliban leader Mullah Omar Mohammed, has largely been ignored, and civilians are routinely killed during Taliban suicide and other attacks.
Today’s suicide attack is the second in Afghanistan in two days. Yesterday in Kandahar, a team of three suicide bombers armed with assault rifles attacked a border police headquarters. The first suicide bomber detonated at the outer wall, opening a hole that allowed the two other bombers to enter the compound. Police killed the two other bombers during a gunfight that lasted nearly an hour.
17 Comments
Rest in peace, brave soldiers.
Who is supplying these guys with explosives? That is a lot of explosives to be just lying around from the Soviet days. Could it be ISI, so Pakistan has a say in the post US government in Afghanistan? If so, does Hillary’s warning of consequences for terror attacks on US assets that are traced back to Pakistan apply to events outside the US?
RIP heroes.
Charley,
I believe there are a lot of explosives laying around. I don’t think 750kg would even be THAT expensive considering one IED costs ~$10. I’m sure someone else has more information on this topic though.
Who is supplying these guys with explosives? Can you say Iran? Sure you can.
What never ceases to amaze me is that these murderers are not simply pushed to the lunatic fringe for everyone’s safety. Their explotation of the internet, media, law, government, propaganda is as much a threat to the world as these killings. They are the facsists of our time, and we are smack dab in the middle of World War III, yet these maniacs still get free passes to the civilized institutions. Bill made the correct call years ago by naming this website “thelongwarjournal” for surely this insanity will not end anytime soon.
Very sorry to see some of our young people die.
I have feeling that these bombings are going to frustrate our military leadership immensely.
750 Kgs is a lot of explosives, suggestive of a supply chain.
There exists one well-established supply chain in Afghanistan for arms and ammunition, it’s from Pakistan. Specifically from the state of Pakistan channelled through its military.
Whether Pakistan is involved or not in this dastardly attack is anybody’s guess.
I do think these bombings are a bad omen for the overall U.S. strategy in play in Afghanistan.
If they couldn’t protect Kabul, how are David Petraeus and Gen. McChrystal going to capture-and-hold major population centers in Southern Afghanistan and elsewhere?
Up until pretty recently Ammonium Nitrate – technical grade – was massively available by way of Pakistan. It is the favorite fertilizer in Afghanistan and could be found just about everywhere.
Thus most IED’s consisted of ANFO with a primer consisting of military ordinance.
ANFO is powerful stuff and is massively used by the mining industry.
The Oklahoma City Federal Building atrocity used this system.
IIRC one of the major changes of late is to strictly control Ammonium Nitrate within Afghanistan.
Stu: Facism isn’t necessarily racialist or even belligerant. Franco, as a Catholic general who decided to side with the facists (and a man whom I admire) would take umbrage at your statement.
Certainly facism has a great share of atrocities (and though less than communism it caused more casualties per year per country) but also stories of economic success and passable civil rights, take for example Portugal’s Novo Estada, Argentina pre-Falklands war and Franco’s own Spain.
Figures like Hitler and Mussolini were racialists as much or more than they were facists. Facisms history is chequered, unlike that of Islam which has been mostly (yes, just mostly) non-stop violence for fourteen hundred years.
That is, they’re not the fascists of our time other than their belief that if their values are right they can use force to attain them, though while facism preaches this possibility Islam has no restriction.
Furthermore they are not insane. It is sad so many people wish to see them as insane. Their beliefs make sense, even if they are farfetched even for Islam. The Koran states that any methods are allowed in the pursuit of Allah’s wishes, especially against pagans and trinitiarian Christians (though these days they pretty much treat trinitarians (I’m one) as non-Trinitarians and Jews like Pagans).
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Muthuswamy: This bombing was merely a mixed success for the insurgent forces. Failure to stop one bomb is not failure to protect the Capital.
The USs strategy will meet with some level of success over the next year, the question is whether it will be capitalized on by getting rid of Karzai and his gang.
“Whether Pakistan is involved or not in this dastardly attack is anybody’s guess.”
At roughly the same time this attack in Kabul took palce, a suicide bomber on a bicycle assassinated an anti-Taliban police commander and a dozen other people on the Pakistani side of the border. Suicide bombings in Afghanistan are small compared to the carnage that Pakistani cities have seen.
CH
A. Your comment is a non-sense to me as it doesn’t address Muthuswamy’s excerpted quote, leave alone the bigger picture of his comment.
B. There is a news report by Bill on the bombing in Pakistan to which you refer–why don’t you place your comment there, ie in the right pigeon-hole.
C. Has it ever occured to you that “Suicide bombings in Afghanistan are small compared to the carnage that Pakistani cities have seen.” PRECISELY BECAUSE Kabul is better secured, and the Pak security is (1) incompetent and (2) incidiously entangled with the terrorists, in case you haven’t noticed despite the catalogue within this jounal. I don’t believe the Afghan security forces are in bed with the Taliban. In fact they detest the Pakistanis for their misplaced policy of aiding and abetting and, in general, meddling with their affairs.
D. Your comments say very little beyond your ‘My-heart-bleeds-for-you-Pakistan’ refrain. Dig deeper.
T-Ruth,
Exactly how is my comment “nonsense”? Do you not like the facts? Suicide bombers have been killing 4 or 5 times as many Pakistanis every year since 2007, yet Pakistan is accused of being behind some attacks in Afghanistan.
BTW, why do you give Afghanistan the benefit of the doubt? Karzai has openly considered “aligning with the Taliban”, and on numerous occasions, Afghan Army soldiers have opened fire on NATO soldiers intentionally.
C.H.,
Karzai openly considered “aligning with Taliban”. As Bill has cataloged Pakistan is in bed with Taliban (read “good” vs “bad” Taliban).
ISI holds the real power in Pakistan and the whole “democratic setup” is a show put up. And it is repeatedly shown that ISI is in bed with Afg Taliban while fighting Pak Taliban.
Afghan is opposed to Afg Taliban and are certainly not with Pak Taliban.
For once accept that the seeds of all the violence since 2001 were sown during Zia years. I.e Pakistan is responsible for the violence both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
No, US is not responsible. US(and Saudi) had money to fight the Soviets and Pakistan gladly accepted the money in exchange for providing fighters by indoctrinating them with violent Jihad.
Internally Pakistan advertised the Jihad against Soviets as a matter of ideology. The same ideology is biting back. Enjoy the process.
Of course as Ziessa puts it the latest violence is part of 1400 year old process of violently(and forcibly) replacing one culture with a foreign culture.
CH
” Suicide bombers have been killing 4 or 5 times as many Pakistanis every year since 2007, yet Pakistan is accused of being behind some attacks in Afghanistan.”
Why are the two mutually exclusive?
CH, one fact does not prove another.
Pakistan has more casualties, that does not mean they’re facing stauncher opposition or that there are not numerous pro-terrorist elements within the establishment.
Really, this is basic logic and surface sourcing.
Btw., it seems I was wrong about the bombing being a mixed success… it took out two full birds and two LTCs.
Looking deeper into my sources on facism it also seems I misrepresented them as too far to the left once again (so many crazy facists…) … not that I’m surprised – I’m just too influenced by pseudo/semi-facistic thoughtlines to portray the mainstream as bad as it is (not that far off from Islam and in some famous examples worse… though that kinda brings to mind the 600 million Hindus the last milennium).
Anyway… there’s been another few attacks the last few days. Looks like they’re on a PR and strategic offensive.
As expected, Pakistani ISI involved …
The blast killed 18 people, including a Canadian and an American colonel, two American lieutenant colonels and their two American drivers, as well as 12 Afghan civilians. They were also charged with involvement in a series of other suicide attacks in Kabul that killed another 25 persons.
“All the explosions and terrorist attacks by these people were plotted from the other side of the border and most of the explosives and materials used for the attacks were brought from the other side to Afghanistan,”