A chain of suicide bombings killed 19 people, including four Canadian soldiers, across Afghanistan on Monday, in guerrilla violence bearing an increasing resemblance to the conflict in Iraq. The blasts came a day after Nato claimed it had scored a victory after killing more than 500 insurgents in two weeks of fighting in the Taliban’s southern heartland.
But yesterday’s first attack occurred in the same area when a bicycle-mounted bomber attacked Canadian troops distributing gifts to local children. The blast tore through the crowd, killing four Canadian soldiers and injuring 14 more, Nato officials and security sources said. About 25 Afghans were injured in the attack in Panjwayi district, western Kandahar. They included two girls, aged six and 10, who were flown by helicopter to a hospital in Kandahar.
The greatest carnage occurred in the normally peaceful western city of Herat, near the Iranian border, when a bomber on a motorcycle killed 11 people, including four policemen, outside a mosque.
A third suicide attacker struck a busy market in Pul I Charki, on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, killing four policemen.
On Monday night it was too early to judge if the attacks were coordinated. A Taliban spokesperson claimed responsibility only for the Kandahar killings, warning that attacks on Canadian, British and Dutch forces in the south would continue.
Still, the timing of the attacks suggested a calculated rebuke against Nato. On Sunday Lieutenant General David Richards, commander of the 20 000-strong Nato force, declared that the two-week drive into western Kandahar, known as Operation Medusa, had been a ”significant success”.
Although Nato officially claims to have killed more than 500 Taliban during the two-week sweep, some officers privately said the figure could be more than 1 000, making it the bloodiest battle Afghanistan has seen since 2001.
Richards said a ”secure environment” had been created in Panjwayi and Zheri districts, clearing the way for the rebuilding of battle-damaged houses and the return of thousands of displaced civilians. ”The Taliban had no choice but to leave,” he said. But Monday’s attack underlined fears that reconstruction will be neither safe nor easy. ”How do you reconstruct with hostilities still going on?” said a western official in Kandahar.
The violence could also mark a shift in Taliban tactics. A senior official said that Nato military intelligence had intercepted communications from the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, instructing commanders to stop concentrating their forces in small areas such as Panjwayi.
Having suffered massive losses under western aerial strikes, the Taliban seem to be reverting to suicide attacks as a means of pressuring western forces. Seven Western soldiers, including two Americans and a Briton, have died in suicide bombings in the past three weeks — more than the total for the previous 12 months.
”They are resorting to these despicable tactics after the pressure we have them under in their strongholds,” said a Nato spokesperson, Major Luke Knittig.
The Taliban are also spreading the insurgency into other areas. On Monday Nato launched operations in western Farah province after a string of clashes that left at least a dozen police and insurgents dead last week.
The bombings will also refocus attention on neighbouring Pakistan. Many Western officials in Kabul believe that the Taliban leadership is based in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, where a shura, or council of elders, directs attacks in Afghanistan. – Guardian Unlimited Â