Following the militant attacks on Kabul earlier this week, I asked Animesh Roul, Executive Director (Research) of the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict in New Delhi and a regular contributor to Counterterrorism Blog what kind of impact the attacks were likely to have.
He said his impression was that the Taliban had hoped to emulate the Mumbai attacks by using vehicle borne suicide attacks and indiscriminate gunfire.
‘The Taliban failed miserably in this attempt in terms of inflicting fatalities or damage to public properties-they could have planned it better,’ he told me, adding that their initial claims for the number of suicide bombers that infiltrated the city were undermined by the relative lack of damage.
However, he agreed with me that the psychological impact will potentially be much more lasting:
‘When all’s said and done, they achieved a psychological advantage for one single reason-that they have created this situation in the heart of the capital, which is well fortified. And they also sent out a message to Karzai government, as well as their affiliates, of what they are capable of.’