Security has supposedly been ramped up in Kabul since a lorry bomb ripped through the diplomatic quarter of the Afghan capital in May last year, killing more than 150 people. Yet the terrorists continue to strike, almost daily and apparently at will.
Two attacks in as many days, by the Taliban on Saturday and by Islamic State this morning, have left more than 110 dead, scores injured and again exposed intelligence failures and holes in the city’s security.
A week ago, Taliban gunmen evaded security guards at the front of Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, entering via a kitchen door at the side before slaughtering more than 40 people in a 14-hour rampage.
Last year’s attack on the diplomatic quarter penetrated deep into the most fortified area of the city. For all the billions of dollars spent on the defence of Kabul, the city now appears a backdrop for the turf war between the rival Islamist groups.
As politicians and diplomats shelter behind blast walls, groping for solutions to the conflict, ordinary Afghans continue to bleed in the streets beyond.
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Isis has switched its attention to the capital in recent weeks, launching a string of attacks since October that have killed some 150 people and wounded hundreds. Pounded by US airstrikes and driven from several districts by American and Afghan forces in its eastern stronghold of Nangarhar province, the group has simply refocused on the capital. Fear is spreading of a new Isis terror cell operating and recruiting within the city itself.
Both groups understand the symbolic power of an attack on the capital, generating more media coverage worldwide, boosting morale, promoting their brand and attracting new recruits.
US generals and politicians have claimed that the Trump strategy in Afghanistan is working. Ramping up troop numbers and fighting through the winter with a focus, not on nation-building but on “killing terrorists”, is close to forcing the insurgents back to the negotiating table, it is claimed.
That will ring hollow while hundreds continue to die on the streets of Kabul.