Taliban 'to step up suicide bombings'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Taliban 'to step up suicide bombings'*
By Tom Coghlan in Kabul
Last Updated: 2:38am BST 22/06/2007
The Taliban promised yesterday to unleash a wave of suicide attacks on
Kabul with the ultimate goal of expelling foreign forces.
The threat, which signalled a new phase of the Taliban's bloody
campaign, came in the wake of a huge suicide bomb in the Afghan capital
that killed 35 people, most of them police recruits, at the weekend.
Zabiullah Mujahed, a spokesman for the Taliban, said: "We have already
started the focus of our attack on Kabul.
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"Most of the attacks will be sacrificial attacks and bomb attacks. But
we may also carry out guerrilla attacks with our mujahideen in the
suburbs. It is the capital and it is where many foreign forces are
concentrated."
The Taliban has bragged that it has recruited hundreds of potential
suicide bombers. The Islamist group has launched 80 such attacks so far
this year, following 145 last year.
With violence last year reaching a peak between July and September, the
total number of suicide bombings this year is expected to reach 200.
"We expected more suicide attacks this spring and summer," said Major
John Thomas, a Nato spokesman. "This is a sign of weakness, but also a
threat to Afghan people who suffer the most from these explosions."
In an escalating propaganda war, both Nato and the Taliban accuse the
other of failing to protect the lives of ordinary Afghans. Mujahed
claimed that suicide bombers were being trained to avoid civilian
casualties, including the several thousand foreign aid workers in Kabul.