Taking advantage of foreign troops’ withdrawal and months-long election crisis in Afghanistan, the Taliban and its foreign allies have stepped up violence across the country to project power, seize territory, and further weaken international support for the Afghan mission.
This morning, a Taliban suicide bomber in an explosive-laden vehicle attacked a NATO military convoy near the US embassy in Kabul, killing three coalition troops in the latest in a series of high-profile terrorist attacks this summer. On July 15, a Taliban bombing killed 42 civilians in a busy market in eastern Paktika Province, just hours after a roadside bomb killed two employees of President Karzai’s office in Kabul. In the same month, the terrorist group launched a string of deadly attacks against the Kabul airport and government buildings in southern and eastern provinces.
But while Taliban suicide and spectacular attacks surge each summer during the fighting season, this year the group has also coordinated significant offensives to reclaim territories it had lost during the surge in 2010 and 2011. Over the past three months, hundreds of Taliban militants have launched a large-scale assault on Afghan forces in several key districts in the southern province of Helmand– overrunning security check points, seizing villages, and killing hundreds of Afghan security personnel and local civilians.
According to Afghan officials, two strategic districts of Musa Qala and Sangin are on the verge of falling to the hands of the Taliban, as ill-equipped local security forces do not receive adequate support from Kabul or coalition forces. In the past 90 days, insurgents have reportedly launched about 800 attacks in Sangin and two neighboring districts of Nawzad and Kajaki alone. Sangin, a major regional hub for opium trade, was a focal point of the surge; but as the American Marines left the region in May, the Taliban is back with a vengeance.
Given the deteriorating security situation, it is imperative that both Afghan presidential contenders put an end to their political wrangling and form a unity government to address pressing political and security issues. A continuation of the political crisis would only benefit the Taliban, undermine the morale of the Afghan security forces, and further erode international support for Afghanistan.
Lessons learned from Iraq’s recent descent into chaos and terror also dictate that President Obama reconsider his politically-motivated decision of pulling out all troops from Afghanistan within two years. As in Iraq, a premature withdrawal would allow the Taliban and al Qaeda to reconstitute along the Afghan-Pakistani border from where they plot attacks against America and its allies.
Follow AEIdeas on Twitter at @AEIdeas.
