Suicide bombing in Taliban country

In a tragic day in which over 100 people were killed in Iraq in suicide bombings, a disturbing echo of this tactic was heard in Taliban country, the remote and dangerous province Uruzgan.

In the provincial capital, Tarin Kowt, the American ambassador was visiting the Deputy governor, when a suicide bomber detonated a grenade and himself in a crowd assembled in town. At least ten were killed. The Ambassador was not injured.


Another suicide bombing in Kandahar only a week prior

Uruzgan province has been the site of continued Taliban activity, and the American counter-insurgency (in partnership with Warlord-Governor Jan Mohammed) appears not to have halted the violence, especially over the last months. A number of bloody incidents occured during November and December, taking a number of Afghan police officer's lives, and wounding a number of coalition soldiers.

According to military sources, new Taliban recruits are arriving from Pakistan to replace those killed earlier in the year. Villagers allege in Taliban Country that the US military's hard-handed tactics have forced many to flee for Pakistan, and had turned some in Uruzgan towards militant resistance.

Afghan newspaper Cheragh wrote in its editorial:

The Taleban’s use of the new weapon of suicide attacks raises the question of whether militants are losing their capacity to fight a guerrilla war, or whether they are copying the tactics used by Iraqi insurgents against US forces. (transcribed and translated by IWPR)

It appears that while the Taliban may be limited to guerilla and suicidal tactics, the group not oblivious to the politics behind the 2006 NATO deployment to Afghanistan.

Within the next month, the Dutch parliament will vote on deployment of 1,000 troops to Uruzgan. This suicide bombing was a message not only to the American Ambassador, but to the Dutch government.