Another Taliban Suicide Bomber Uses the "Turban Bomb" To Kill

As the article at The Long War Journal states, for the third time this summer, a Taliban suicide bomber has used his traditional turban head dress to hide an explosive device and set it off in a terror attack. This time, yesterday, the target was a military center in Helmand province - three Afghan troops were wounded in the attack.

From the article:

For the third time this summer, a Taliban suicide bomber with an explosive device hidden within his traditional Afghan headdress detonated at an Afghan government center. The Friday attack occurred during a ceremony marking Afghanistan's Independence Day held at the Helmand Military Corps Center. Three Afghan National Policemen were wounded in the attack.

The Taliban-led insurgency is increasingly relying upon formerly-taboo tactics such as female suicide bombers and bombs being rigged to traditional Afghan headdresses, called lungee, referred to by the West as "turbans." These tactics have raised the ire of many Afghan communities; particularly among communities in Kandahar and Helmand. Afghan lungee are not searched at security check-points because of the acute level of cultural sensitivity regarding one's headdress. The Taliban have exploited this dynamic and conducted at least three such "turban-bombings" since July 14.

On July 14, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated his headdress during a funeral ceremony for the slain half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai; killing four people including the ulema council leader, Maluvi Hekmatullah Hekmat, and another senior religious cleric. The National Directorate of Security chief for Kandahar, General Mohammed Naim Momin, immediately condemned the attack and said it violated the Pashtun legal code known as Pashtunwali. "We respect those people who wear turbans and did not check the turban as a sign of respect, but he betrayed this respect and hid explosives in his turban," he told the New York Times.

On July 27, a suicide bomber killed the mayor of Kandahar City, Ghulam Hadiri Hamidi, after he exited a meeting and was speaking on his cell-phone in a courtyard. The bomber rigged a small amount of explosives in his lungee and approached Hadiri, locking him in a bear hug before detonating the device which killed both of them.

With each and every day, the Taliban take it to the extreme in their suicide bombing attacks - from using women, to using children, to stuffing explosives in dead animal carcasses, to putting the bombs in their turbans. This is the influence of al Qaeda on the Taliban and one thing that we have to come to grips with is that al Qaeda and the Taliban are now joined at the hip - in action and in ideology.

Third 'Turban bomb' attack rocks southern Helmand Province


For the third time this summer, a Taliban suicide bomber with an explosive device hidden within his traditional Afghan headdress detonated at an Afghan government center. The Friday attack occurred during a ceremony marking Afghanistan's Independence Day held at the Helmand Military Corps Center. Three Afghan National Policemen were wounded in the attack.

The Taliban-led insurgency is increasingly relying upon formerly-taboo tactics such as female suicide bombers and bombs being rigged to traditional Afghan headdresses, called lungee, referred to by the West as "turbans." These tactics have raised the ire of many Afghan communities; particularly among communities in Kandahar and Helmand. Afghan lungee are not searched at security check-points because of the acute level of cultural sensitivity regarding one's headdress. The Taliban have exploited this dynamic and conducted at least three such "turban-bombings" since July 14.

On July 14, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated his headdress during a funeral ceremony for the slain half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai; killing four people including the ulema council leader, Maluvi Hekmatullah Hekmat, and another senior religious cleric. The National Directorate of Security chief for Kandahar, General Mohammed Naim Momin, immediately condemned the attack and said it violated the Pashtun legal code known as Pashtunwali. "We respect those people who wear turbans and did not check the turban as a sign of respect, but he betrayed this respect and hid explosives in his turban," he told the New York Times.

On July 27, a suicide bomber killed the mayor of Kandahar City, Ghulam Hadiri Hamidi, after he exited a meeting and was speaking on his cell-phone in a courtyard. The bomber rigged a small amount of explosives in his lungee and approached Hadiri, locking him in a bear hug before detonating the device which killed both of them.

By Aug. 9, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had met with ulema councils from around Afghanistan and urged a collective strategy to help end the usage of "turban bombs" before the phenomenon became more widespread. Karzai urged the clerics to launch a public information campaigns to "convince militants not to use turbans and other religious attire to carry out suicide bombings, not to target mosques and to make them aware that suicide was un-Islamic," according to a spokesman for Karzai.

Not surprisingly, the Taliban through a spokesman denied responsibility for the July 14 suicide bombing in Kandahar that killed Maluvi Hekmatullah, and denied the bomber who killed Mayor Hadiri was killed by a "turban bomb." The Taliban, under increased pressure from a stepped up targeted assassination campaign by NATO and Afghan forces, have been resorting to acute asymmetrical tactics and brutality, including the wanton massacring of Afghan civilians.