The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a “complex martyrdom operation” late yesterday in Kabul. The attack was carried out by a suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives and four others. It is not clear how many people were killed or wounded. According to RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (RFE/RL), Afghan officials claim the facility was mostly abandoned at the time of “martyrdom” operation.
The Taliban tells a different story. In a statement attributed to its spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban claimed that “[d]ozens of invaders and hirelings” were killed in the assault, which targeted “a key intelligence site” for “foreigners” in Kabul’s Green Village. (Taliban social media accounts posted the Google Maps image of the “Green Village” seen above.)
After a suicide bomber, identified as “Motasim Logari,” detonated his explosive-laden truck bomb, four other jihadists “armed with light and heavy weapons entered” the facility, according to Mujahid’s statement. The four “heavily-armed” members in this team of “martyrdom seekers” are identified as: “Talha Paktiawal, Hamdullah Zabuli, Akram Kunari and Zubair Logari.” They clashed with security personnel for “several hours.”
The Taliban is sensitive to claims that its operations kill or wound Afghan civilians. So the Taliban argues in its claim of responsibility that “Green Village” is an “area where the movement of civilians is strictly prohibited.” Still, the group was forced to concede that “some people living far away from the area were harmed due to shattered glass from the powerful explosion,” even though “they were not target of the attack itself.”
The Taliban adds one of its familiar warnings, which are intended to justify civilian casualties during its operations. “This attack came as the Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate had prior warned the residents of Kabul to stay away from the living quarters, offices, military bases and centers of foreign forces as well as the military centers of the Kabul administration,” the statement attributed to Mujahid reads.
Afghan officials say that at least four people were killed and 90 more wounded, according to RFE/RL. Officials in Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said that foreign workers have stayed in the building, but UN staffers had recently relocated away from the site. In addition, the Afghan officials said that 23 children “are among the injured.”
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Hi Bill – A question to you: The Taliban’s statement names the assailants with the names of provinces where they ostensibly come from – Motasim Logari from Logar, Talha Paktiawal, Hamdullah Zabuli, Akram Kunari and Zubair Logari, and so on. Is it that the Taliban want to emphasize the Afghan identities of their members as a way of deflecting the claims that many Taliban members are Pakistanis, Arabs or from other countries?? Is this a recent tactic or attaching province names to their members was also used in the past??? Any ideas??