Taliban or IMU Suicide Bomber Hits Northern Afghanistan, Kills 16 Including 10 Policemen

Pretty horrific scene today in northern Afghanistan where a Taliban (or IMU) suicide bomber took out 16 people with ten of them being the intended target of Afghan policement.

From the article at The Long War Journal:

A suicide bomber killed at least 16 Afghans, including 10 policemen, in an attack in a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. The attack is the second of its kind in three days.

The suicide bomber attacks Afghan policemen as they were providing security at a protest in Kunduz City in northern Kunduz province. Pajhwok Afghan News reported that 16 people were killed, while AFP reported that up to 21 people were killed in the blast.

Today's attack in Kunduz is the second suicide bombing in a major city in three days. On Sept. 8, the Taliban claimed credit for an attack outside of Camp Eggers, a large Coalition base in Kabul, that killed six Afghan civilians. The Taliban claimed the suicide bomber targeted CIA personnel and killed "at least 5 high-level US secret agents."

While no group has claimed credit for today's suicide attack, the bombing was very likely carried out by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the al Qaeda and Taliban-linked terror group that has integrated its leadership and operations with the Taliban in the Afghan north.

You know, I don't really give a rat's ass if this suicide bomber was a Taliban or if he was a Uzbek - it makes no difference.  But the attack on the police like this is a well known trade secret of strategy of al Qaeda so he was probably Uzbek.  It's disturbing to see this kind of activity up in the far north where the Taliban and Uzbeks should have been cleaned out ages ago.

Suicide bomber kills 16 in Afghan north


A suicide bomber killed at least 16 Afghans, including 10 policemen, in an attack in a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. The attack is the second of its kind in three days.

The suicide bomber attacks Afghan policemen as they were providing security at a protest in Kunduz City in northern Kunduz province. Pajhwok Afghan News reported that 16 people were killed, while AFP reported that up to 21 people were killed in the blast.

Today's attack in Kunduz is the second suicide bombing in a major city in three days. On Sept. 8, the Taliban claimed credit for an attack outside of Camp Eggers, a large Coalition base in Kabul, that killed six Afghan civilians. The Taliban claimed the suicide bomber targeted CIA personnel and killed "at least 5 high-level US secret agents."

While no group has claimed credit for today's suicide attack, the bombing was very likely carried out by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the al Qaeda and Taliban-linked terror group that has integrated its leadership and operations with the Taliban in the Afghan north.

The IMU is known to have a strong presence in Kunduz. Coalition and Afghan special operations forces have conducted numerous raids against the IMU in Kunduz over the past several years. This year alone, there have been 10 documented raids against the IMU in the province. The last raid was on Sept. 8, when special operations force targeted an IMU facilitator who is suspected providing money, ammunition and explosives to support insurgent activity throughout the region. Several suspected insurgents were detained during the operation, however it is unclear if the target was among them.

The IMU has claimed credit for several suicide attacks in the north, including the November 2011 assault on a US Provincial Reconstruction Team in the peaceful province of Panjshir. At the end of November 2011, the IMU claimed that 87 of its members were killed during operations in Afghanistan; many of those killed died in suicide attacks. The IMU commanders and fighters listed as "martyred" were from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Germany, and Russia.

The IMU has carried out similar suicide operations that have killed top Afghan officials in the north. Most recently, the IMU is suspected of carrying out the July 14 suicide attack at a wedding in nearby Samangan province that killed a prominent Afghan member of parliament, the western zone police commander, a provincial intelligence chief, and several senior Afghan officials.

The US killed Abu Usman Adil, the former leader of the IMU, in a US drone strike in Pakistan earlier this year. The IMU announced his death in early August and named Usman Ghazi as the new leader of the al Qaeda-linked terror group.