Coordinated Suicide Attacks Pound Afghanistan

Four Attacks in Three Hours Target Security Forces

A series of coordinated suicide attacks hit several sites in Afghanistan, including the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Jalalabad and another at a checkpoint along the highway leading to Kabul.

All told the attacks took less than three hours, with three strikes killing at least three security force members and wounding a number of others. A fourth attack was apparently thwarted in Kabul, with an SUV full of dynamite defused near NATO headquarters.

Taliban confirmed credit for the assorted attacks, minus the failed Kabul attack, while Afghan officials termed them a “threat to stability.” Either way, the attacks show the Taliban remains capable of hitting targets nationwide in a coordinated fashion.

Attacks on the NDS have become increasingly common in recent months, with the Taliban looking to show that the intelligence agency is unable to keep even its own sites from being attacked, let alone providing any kind of security to the rest of the nation.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.