Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Security has not improved!

According to Western military sources, the security condition in Afghanistan is unexpectedly better this year. The number of attacks by insurgents has decreased as compared to previous year. Last year proved to be the deadliest for international forces in Afghanistan as 709 soldiers were killed. The claim of improvement security comes at times when there have been several deadly attacks on coalition forces recently. Only this week, 22 coalition personnel have been killed in various attacks in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, October, 29, an ANA soldier gunned down the Australian members of Mentoring Task Force 3, an Afghan interpreter and injured seven others just as they ended a regular weekly parade at a forward operating base at Shah Wali Kot in Kandahar province.

Three Australians - a corporal, captain and lance corporal - were killed, making it the single deadliest attack on Australian forces during the entire Afghanistan campaign. On the same day, a suicide car bomber attacked an armored bus belonging to ISAF in the Afghan capital of Kabul, killing 17 people including one Canadian soldier and four American service members.

Eight ISAF civilians, including two Britons, were also among the casualties. On Tuesday, 1 November, two ISAF service members were killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Afghanistan's east.

So far this year, at least 511 coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan increasing concerns over the future defense of Afghanistan as the NATO forces are due to withdraw by the end of 2014. These attacks signal that not only things have not improved in Afghanistan but also the situation is going to become more concerning in future.

One problem that has gone unresolved in the last ten years is the gap between official figures and ground realities. Development in security, as claimed by NATO and Karzai administration, can not be observed anywhere in Afghanistan. This year proved to be deadly for Afghanistan. In addition to other attacks by insurgents, a new wave of targeted killing took lives of several political, tribal and social leaders of Afghanistan.