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Sunday, August 9, 2015

Kabul blasts kill 35, test Afghan president's peace plan

KABUL, Afghanistan – Two massive attacks in
Kabul on Friday, one near a government and
military complex in a residential area and the
other a suicide bombing outside a police
academy, killed at least 35 people, sending the
strongest message yet to Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani -- that militants are still able to
strike at his heavily fortified seat of power.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks,
though officials indicated they blamed the
Taliban.
The implications of the assaults, however,
undermine claims by security services and the
government that the capital is immune from
devastating attacks. They also pose a major
challenge to Ghani, who has made the peace
process with the Taliban the hallmark of his
presidency since taking office last year.
In the evening hours, a suicide bomber dressed
in a police uniform struck outside the gates of a
police academy in Kabul, killing at least 20
recruits and wounding 24, Afghan officials said.
The attacker walked into a group of recruits
waiting outside the academy and detonated his
explosives-laden vest, said a police officer, who
goes by the name of Mabubullah. Many Afghans
use only one name. A security official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to talk to reporters, said there were
at least 24 wounded among the recruits.
Later on Friday evening, insurgents launched an
attack on a NATO military base near Kabul's
international airport, according to the coalition
spokesman, Col. Brian Tribus. Two insurgents
were killed in the assault, he added, without
giving further details.
No one claimed responsibility for that attack and
it was not immediately clear if there was any
damage to the NATO base.
Earlier in the day, a massive truck bomb killed at
least 15 people in a residential area of Kabul.
That 1 a.m. blast flattened an entire city block
and also wounded 240 people, officials said.
It was one of the largest ever in Kabul -- a city of
4.5 million people -- in terms of scale, flattening
a city block and leaving a 30-foot crater in the
ground.
The president's office said 47 women and 33
children were among the casualties in that attack.
The president's deputy spokesman, Zafar
Hashemi, said about 40 of the wounded would
remain hospitalized. It was unknown how the
attackers smuggled a large amount of explosives
into the heavily guarded city.
Ghani threatened a rapid and forceful response
to the bombing, saying it was aimed at diverting
public attention from the Taliban's leadership
struggle.
Last week, Afghan authorities announced the
death Mullah Mohammad Omar, the one-eyed,
secretive head of the Taliban who hosted Osama
Bin Laden's al-Qaida in the years leading up to
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Mullah Omar had not
been seen in public since fleeing over the border
into Pakistan after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that
ousted the Taliban.
The Afghan intelligence agency said Mullah Omar
had been dead for more than two years. The
Taliban leadership confirmed his death -- and
even appointed a successor -- but the revelation
still sparked a leadership struggle among senior
Taliban figures, raising concerns of a succession
crisis that could splinter the group.
Pakistan, which wields significant influence over
the insurgent group and which hosted the first
round of landmark Afghan-Taliban peace talks
last month, denied that Mullah Omar had died in
Karachi. Pakistan's defense minister, Khawaja
Muhammad Asif, repeated that denial in
parliament on Friday.
The peace talks were indefinitely postponed
following the announcement of Mullah Omar's
death.
Ghani, freshly returned from medical treatment
in Germany, visited the wounded from the early
Friday attack in hospital as social media carried
calls for blood donations
"We are still committed to peace. But we will
respond to these sort of terrorist attacks with
force and power," Ghani said in a statement,
condemning the high civilian casualty count.
Zafar Hashemi, the president's deputy
spokesman, blamed the Taliban and said the
attackers aimed to "hide the cracks between
their own factions and create terror."
At a White House briefing Friday, press secretary
Josh Earnest said the U.S. "condemns in the
strongest terms" the bombing in Kabul.
"This heinous attack demonstrates once again the
ever-growing gulf between extremists and the
people of Afghanistan and it certainly shows the
blatant disregard for human life on the part of
those extremists," Earnest said, adding that the
Afghan people have endured much but remain
resilient "even in the face of a brutal
insurgency."
The Obama administration continues to urge the
Taliban to heed Ghani's call for reconciliation and
make peace with the government, Earnest also
said.
The appointment of Mullah Omar's deputy,
Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, to succeed him sparked
protests from his brother and son, and appears
to have led to serious rifts that internal
committees are now trying to heal.
An Afghan security official -- speaking on
condition of anonymity as he was not authorized
to give information to the media -- said the
Taliban had split into four factions, all with
powerful political credentials and substantial
armed followings.
He said that agents of Pakistan's ISI intelligence
agency -- believed to have sheltered the Taliban
leadership since their regime was overthrown in
a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 -- were in Quetta to
help the Taliban resolve the crisis.
Mullah Akhtar is believed to have led the group
into informal and formal peace talks at the
behest of Islamabad. Other contenders for the
leadership might not be so open to a dialogue
with the Afghan government, possibly believing
that apparent success on the battlefield this year
puts victory within sight.
"The peace talks are on ice for the moment until
the Taliban can come up with a coherent political
voice," said Graeme Smith, Afghanistan analyst
with the International Crisis Group.
"The Afghan government has no choice but to
wait for the leadership crisis to be resolved.
There is no one to talk to right now. Peace
negotiators need someone to talk to," he said.

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