Taliban mount failed attack in Khost

Observer/Guardian:

Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the main police station in the eastern Afghan city of Khost yesterday. Their assault triggered lengthy gun battles that left seven militants dead and 14 people wounded, officials said.

The attack was one of the most audacious in recent years and took place in an area that it was hoped had been stabilised. Khost is a major provincial centre and the site of one of the biggest US bases in Afghanistan.

The assault signalled a further escalation in Taliban tactics of targeting poorly defended government installations rather than heavily armed international troops. One aim is to drive a wedge between local forces and officials and those trying to protect them. Local forces are attacked directly, international soldiers are struck with remote-controlled bombs.

In recent weeks, tribal leaders have seen a major influx of fighters who are fleeing operations on the Pakistani side of the porous frontier 12 miles from Khost where Islamabad's soldiers have begun moving against key insurgent havens.

The attack began in the afternoon when at least six insurgents wearing explosives stormed the area around the main police station and a nearby government-run bank. All were shot and killed before they could detonate their vests, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. A seventh attacker detonated a car bomb near a police rapid reaction force, wounding two policemen. Sporadic firing could still be heard late in the afternoon.

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There is some irony in an attack by Taliban fleeing Pakistani forces at the same time the Pakistani intelligence service was whining to the US about the Marines chasing the Taliban into Pakistan. It appears that both sides are putting pressure on the religious bigots and the real intelligent move would be to keep it up.

The story makes the mistake of focusing on the fact of the attack rather than the result with was a military failure. By focusing on the fact of the attack the media give the enemy some PR they do not deserve. Anyone can mount a failed attack. It is the easiest thing to do in warfare.

It would make more sense to note how the attackers violated the Geneva Conventions by camouflaging themselves as civilians and attacking non combatants. That is an important aspect to the story that does not reflect well on the Taliban and it does not reflect well on the media not to point it out.