21 Afghan Police Killed In Suicide Bombing

A Taliban suicide bomber hit a police training camp in Uruzgan province in Afghanistan killing 21 Afghan police today really underlining how the Taliban have totally adopted their al Qaeda brothers' tactics of rocking the very foundation of authority in the country. Here are some of the details from the article over at The Long War Journal:

Twenty-one Afghan police were killed and seven more were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his vest at a a training center for police reservists in the town of Tarin Kot in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.
The suicide bomber penetrated the training center's security by dressing as a policeman, Radio Netherlands reported. The bomber then detonated his suicide vest among a crowd of policemen. Several policemen were seriously wounded and the blast damaged several buildings.
The Taliban took credit for the suicide attack. The Taliban have stepped up attacks on the Afghan police as they are poorly armed and not as well trained as the Afghan Army and Coalition forces. An estimated 720 Afghan policemen were killed during the last six months of 2008. Most were killed in frontal attacks, Afghanistan's interior ministry reported.
The attack on the Tarin Kot police training facility is the latest in a series of strikes against Afghan police and intelligence headquarters. On Dec. 4, 2008, a three-man suicide team stormed the Khost provincial headquarters of Afghanistan's intelligence service. Six intelligence and police officials were killed and another seven were wounded.

One of the tactics that was so inherent to al Qaeda in Iraq was their attack on Iraqi police - their goal was to eliminate the police in most cities in Iraq both by killing existing police officers and trainees and more importantly, their aim was to dissuade any new recruits for the security forces. And what we have seen in Afghanistan is that with the movement of al Qaeda forces into Pakistan and Afghanistan, some of these strategies and tactics have been adopted by the Taliban.

One can imagine how difficult it will be now to encourage young Afghan men to join the police security forces in this area and thus allow the Taliban free roam over the area.

Now, personally, I have struggled with how the Taliban are able to convince a suicide bomber that that he will attain martyrdom by killing 21 of his fellow muslim brothers in this manner but apparently they have accomplished this sales pitch. What this also show is the total ruthlessness of the Taliban - there is NOTHING they will not try to regain power in Afghanistan. And the whole time this is going on, we have members of the Obama camp that will be coming forward soon to suggest that negotiations start with the Taliban. Think about that. We will propose sitting down with the same bunch that blows up 21 policemen, beheads citizens for being "spies", blows up children's schools and stones innocent women to death. I still don't know how the Obama administration is going to pull that one off.

Suicide bomber strikes in Uruzgan police station

Taliban suicide teams struck at security headquarters in southern Afghanistan on two consecutive days in September of 2008. On Sept. 6, a Taliban suicide bomber penetrated a secure government building in southwestern Afghanistan province of Nimroz and detonated his vest. The attack killed six people, including Nimroz province’s intelligence chief and his 20-year old son.
The next day, two Taliban suicide bombers entered a police headquarters in Kandahar province and searched for a senior police general in charge of border security at the Spin Boldak crossing point. Six policemen were killed and 37 were wounded, including the general, in the bombings.
NATO and the US are looking to fill the security vacuum in the south and east, and areas around Kabul. The US will double its forces, while NATO and the Afghan government are creating the Afghan Public Protection Force, which are local militias patterned after the Awakening in Iraq. The US is slated to deploy four combat brigades, or an estimated 30,000 troops, to Afghanistan next summer. A fifth brigade devoted to training Afghan forces may also be sent by the end of the summer.
The Afghan Public Protection Force program has already begun, according to Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan's Interior Minister. "After training they will have the responsibility of protecting the people, providing security for the highways, schools, clinics and other government institutions," Atmar told The Associated Press. Atmar declined to say where the program has begun, but officials told AP the program will being in the Taliban-infested province of Wardak, just south of Kabul.