Taliban Bomb Mosque In Kunduz Province, Afghanistan...Governor Assassinated, 14 Others Killed

A bit of a rarity in that the Taliban operating in Afghanistan certainly have not, so far, resorted to the bombing or attacking of mosques but today that all changed as Taliban jihadis planted a bomb in a Kunduz province mosque and as the Governor of Kunduz settled in the mosque for Friday prayers.....BOOM. The Governor of the province was killed along with 14 others. And this is fresh out of an al Qaeda playbook - showing how influential the terrorist group now is in both Pakistan and now Afghanistan.

I'm not sure if the Afghan people are going to react to these types of attacks on their revered sites like the Iraqis did in Anbar province...but if they do, the Taliban will have made one huge mistake. Unfortunately, up until now, the Afghan tribes and civilians have mostly turned the other cheek in regards to Taliban behavior.

Here's the story from The Long War Journal:

Taliban assassinate Kunduz governor in attack at mosque


The Taliban have murdered the head of Kunduz province, along with 14 other people, in a bombing today at a mosque in the neighboring province of Tahkar. The governor had been outspoken in his opposition to the Taliban and allied terror groups operating in the north.

Governor Muhammad Omar was killed while worshiping during Friday prayers at the Spinghar mosque in Taluqan, the provincial capital of Takhar province, Pajwhok Afghan News reported. Omar regularly attended Friday prayers at the Spinghar mosque. The Taliban are thought to have planted the bomb in the mosque prior to the service, and detonated it during prayers. Among those also killed in the blast was the prayer leader of the mosque.

"Prayers were ongoing when the massive explosion that shook the mosque took place," a witness at the scene of the attack said.

Omar had survived several previous assassination attempts on his life, according to the BBC. And last year, his brother was also assassinated by the Taliban.

Omar had been vocal in his opposition to the Taliban, and had consistently warned of the spread of the Taliban and allied terror groups in the Afghan north. His assassination comes in the wake of news that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has directed the Taliban to increase their attacks against civilian Afghan leaders, as reported in The Wall Street Journal.

Just days ago, on Oct. 3, Omar said that the security situation in Kunduz province has stabilized, but that there are still more that more than 1,000 Taliban fighters and over 200 "foreigners, including Pakistanis, Chechens, Uzbeks, and Arabs" active in the province, according to Pajwhok Afghan News. The governor also stated that more than 40 percent of the rural areas of Kunduz are still under control of the Taliban.

Over the past several months, Coalition and Afghan forces have heavily targeted senior Taliban leaders in the north. Numerous shadow governors and leaders, many linked to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an al Qaeda affiliate, have been killed or captured in the Afghan north this year.

Within the past week, five top shadow government leaders have been killed or captured. Coalition forces killed Mullah Ismail, the Taliban's shadow governor of Badghis province, and Abdul Hakim, a senior military commander, in a raid on Oct. 6. On Oct. 4, Maulawi Jawadullah , the district shadow governor for Yangi Qalah in Takhar, was killed in an airstrike. On Oct. 5, Qari Ziauddin, the shadow governor for Faryab province, was killed. And also on Oct. 5, Coalition and Afghan forces captured Saifullah, the Taliban's shadow governor for the district of Chahar Darah in Kunduz. Both Zianuddin and Saifullah took orders from the Peshawar Shura, one of four Taliban military councils based in Pakistan. And Saifullah also had close links to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an al Qaeda affiliate.