[R-G] Taliban score propaganda coup with parade attack

[Anthony Fenton]

Taliban score propaganda coup with parade attack
By Jon Hemming
Reuters
Monday, April 28, 2008; 4:20 AM

KABUL (Reuters) - A Taliban attack on an Afghan state parade was a  
propaganda victory undermining faith in the ability of President Hamid  
Karzai's government to protect itself, let alone provide security for  
the Afghan people, analysts said.

At least three Taliban militants managed to evade a wide security  
cordon and hide in a cheap hotel, one of only a very few buildings on  
flat ground overlooking the parade ground.

At the end of a 21-gun salute to mark the mujahideen victory over the  
Afghan communist government 16 years ago, the Taliban gunmen opened  
fire, sending the president, ministers, foreign diplomats and military  
top brass diving for cover.

"It was clearly aimed at grabbing enormous amounts of attention;  
striking in the centre of the capital," said Joanna Nathan, an  
Afghanistan analyst for International Crisis Group. "It was flashed  
around the world, but further than that, it shows them penetrating  
what was obviously a high security event."

Three people were killed; a parliamentarian, the head of a Shi'ite  
minority group and a 10-year-old child. Ten others were wounded in the  
attack. Three Taliban gunmen were killed in the ensuing fighting,  
while others may have got away.

In pure military terms, the attack missed its objectives, though it  
was only a matter of chance that Karzai and all the top dignitaries  
attending the event survived.

TALIBAN SHIFT TACTICS

The spectacle of Afghan leaders cowering on the ground and Afghan  
troops fleeing the parade ground will of course hearten Taliban  
fighters, but more importantly leaves ordinary Afghan wondering how  
Karzai's government can protect them.

"There is no security force in Afghanistan that people trust," said  
Afghan parliamentarian Ramazan Bashardost. "If you pay attention to  
yesterday's incident, the security forces fled the area before the  
ordinary people did."

While the Taliban had no doubt scored a propaganda victory with  
Sunday's attack, that should not cloud the overall picture of steady  
progress in improving security across Afghanistan, said a senior  
Western diplomat who declined to be named.

The Taliban have steadily shifted tactics in the last two years since  
they relaunched their fight to oust Karzai's pro-Western government  
and drive out the more than 50,000 foreign troops stationed in  
Afghanistan.

The Taliban suffered heavy casualties in head-on fights with Afghan  
and foreign forces in 2006 and began to rely more heavily on suicide  
bombings, launching some 140 such attacks last year.

This year, the Taliban have vowed to concentrate on the capital. An  
attack on Kabul's five-star Serena Hotel in January killed several  
foreign civilians and in so doing grabbed international headlines for  
weeks; far more propaganda value for the Islamist militants than a  
raid on an isolated village.

Meanwhile, a steady stream of casualties among foreign troops saps  
public support abroad for keeping troops in Afghanistan.

Taliban insurgents killed one Australian soldier and wounded four  
others in the southern province of Uruzgan, the Australian Department  
of Defence said on Monday. The soldier was the fifth Australian to be  
killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)