In Afghanistan, the increase in attacks casts doubt on the Taliban’s ability to guarantee security on their territory – archyde

The weekly day of great prayer, considered in the Muslim world as a moment of peace, again experienced the worst violence in Afghanistan on Friday, October 15. More than 40 people were killed and more than 70 injured in a suicide bombing in a Shiite mosque in Kandahar, the big city in the south of the country. This carnage echoes to the one committed, on October 8, in similar circumstances, in Kunduz (northeast), claimed by the Islamic State organization (IS). Occurring in a region where the Taliban are historically strongly established, this new attack weakens their promise to guarantee security throughout the territory and to deny access to terrorist groups.

According to preliminary evidence, gunfire and several explosions were reported inside and outside the Fatemieh Mosque, the most important Shiite religious establishment in Kandahar. The security forces estimated, Friday evening, that several suicide bombers would have committed this crime while nearly five hundred people thronged in the places. The images relayed by local television showed, again, the broom of ambulances coming to the aid of the victims. Lifeless bodies strewn across bloody carpets, strewn with clothing, were stepped over by dazed, tearful or desperate survivors.

The Taliban are reluctant to communicate about these acts that question their authority

As is often the case in Afghanistan, the toll of such deadly attacks is imprecise. The sources and centralization of information are difficult to verify. In addition, the Taliban are hardly inclined to communicate about these acts calling into question their authority and the organization of the Afghan administrations remains too embryonic to ensure precise monitoring of the condition of the victims, whose number is often much greater than ‘originally announced. On Friday evening, hospitals and clinics in Kandahar were overwhelmed and healthcare workers declared that they were sorely lacking in blood, according to a medical source cited by Agence France-Presse.

“Bring the perpetrators to justice”

The Taliban government spoke in the evening through Interior Ministry spokesperson Qari Sayed Khosti on Twitter: “We are saddened to learn that an explosion took place in a mosque of the Shiite brotherhood (…) in the city of Kandahar, where a number of our compatriots were killed and injured. “ He added that “Special forces of the Islamic Emirate [le nom officiel choisi par les talibans pour le pays] arrived in the area to determine the nature of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice ”.

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