Kidnapping campaign hits German in Kabal

NY Times:

Armed assailants abducted a German woman from a restaurant in western Kabul, officials said Saturday, while a suicide car bomber targeting a security forces convoy in southern Afghanistan killed 15 people.

In the Kabul kidnapping, armed men pulled up next to a barbecue and fast food restaurant, and one of the men went inside and ordered a pizza, said an intelligence official investigating the incident.

The man then pulled out a pistol, walked up to a table where the woman was sitting with her boyfriend, and took her from the restaurant, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. The boyfriend was not kidnapped.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemerai Bashary said the woman, who was not identified, was kidnapped by men armed with pistols around 1 p.m., but he did not have any further details.

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These kidnappings will continue as long as the Taliban think that they will get something of value from doing them. While they have not gotten the results they intended from kidnapping the Koreans they have gotten publicity and will probably get money for their release. This will only mean more people will be taken. Note that they take people of nationalities that will negotiate with them, not Americans who would instead send the troops after them. The kidnapping of American soldiers is extremely counterproductive because our troops flood the zone and make it impossible for the enemy to even operate in the area.

The Taliban have resorted to a kidnapping strategy because of the failure of their traditional military strategy. It is similar to the Iranian-Hezballah strategy in Lebanon during the 1980's. The best way to deal with it is the aggressive use of force to find the perps.