On Wednesday, January 16, Kabul experienced another brazen attack by Taliban insurgents. The attack was carried out near Afghan intelligence service office and resulted in the death of six suicide bombers and a National Directorate of Security (NDS) agent and it also injured 17 civilians. Reports suggest that 4 out of 17 wounded are serious.

One of the Taliban bombers detonated his explosives-laden car in front of the agency entrance near the Sadarat Square, with the rest being shot dead by security personnel, police said.

The deputy spokesperson for the intelligence service, Shifiqullah Tahiri, said that six bombers equipped with suicide vests, explosives, Kalashnikovs and two cars wanted to attack the high-security directorate. One of them detonated his van in a bid to enable the five others to enter the compound but they were shot dead by police and intelligence operatives, Tahiri said, adding water jell explosives were used for the first time-ever in a bomb attack in the country. An investigation into the incident is underway.

Several shops and vehicles were damaged as a result of the blast, said Ministry of Interior spokesman Ghulam Siddique Siddiqui, who explained one person was killed and 33 others, including security personnel, wounded.

He said the attack involved five bombers, two of them in explosives-packed pickups. One assailant managed to detonate his vehicle, while the second pickup was captured by security official.

The insurgents had placed a time bomb in the second vehicle, but security personnel defused just in the nick of time, according to the spokesman, who said the device was to go off three minutes later.

For the last few years Taliban have come up with different tactics. They have adopted to carry out lethal attacks in different parts of country which happen to be important in some way or the other. Their main objective has been to let the Afghan authorities and people know that they still have the potential to target any place they want – even the most guarded places.

On the other hand they have also carried out deadly assaults on VIP's; depicting that no one is safe against them. Though their attacks are not like that of a traditional war and have not helped them gain control of the places they attack, they have been able to cast a lasting impact of terror on people's psychology. Today, it is very difficult to think that there is any secure place in Afghanistan that cannot be targeted by Taliban. Moreover, people are psychologically threatened as they fear that Taliban have the capacity to attack any place any time.

It is important to note the nature of the attacks that are carried out by them in different places. In most of their recent attacks they are able to penetrate through a well-guarded and important place, choose a building, strengthen their position over there and keep on targeting the surroundings that happen to be significant government and international buildings, unless they are shot down by the security forces. On most of the occasions they have been able to occupy the place and vie for several hours.

By the time they are dead they have already initiated a wave of fear that travels throughout the area. It is correct that Afghan forces have fought well soon after the assaults, but it is really important that such attacks should be figured out before they are carried out so as to avoid great losses and Afghan intelligence agency has to play a dominant role in this regard.

In fact, in the recent years, have been using Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), suicide bombings, ambushes, targeted killings, and other tactics so as to defeat the Afghan and the international forces in the war against terrorism or at least make them realize that they are still there and have the potential to terrorize the country at any time. Through these means they are also able to pressurize the government and the international community to let them have better position in any agreement regarding power sharing in the future. Unfortunately, these tactics of them have influenced the peace and tranquility of the country to a large extent and have even influenced the social-psychology by haunting it through insecurity complex. At the same time they have taken the lives of thousands of civilians, which is the most unfortunate outcome of these filthy arrangements.

Taliban, on various occasions, have claimed that they would not target the civilians directly but the reality about attempts mentioned above is totally against what is claimed by them. Though a recent UN report revealed that there has been a decline in the civilian casualties, the concerns still remain very much disturbing as the number of civilians being killed as a result of insurgency still remains very high. The report also disclosed that about 80 percent of the civilian-killings resulted from the attacks of the Taliban insurgents.

Civilian killings, therefore, clearly depict that Taliban do not care much about the civilian casualties; what they mostly care about is their threat and dominancy over the security arrangements. The report also depicted that the IEDs still remain the most deadly for civilians as they caused 29 percent of the casualties.

It is important to see that Taliban are changing their tactics; therefore the Afghan security forces need to face them with the required preparations. With the changes in the tactics of the militants, it is necessary that there should be changes within the tactics of the security forces to counter them. There is no doubt that Afghan security force have kept on gaining strength in the last few years. At the same time it is necessary to gauge their capability appropriately and realistically. While praising them for their achievements, it is necessary to highlight their shortcomings as well so that they are able to tackle the situation appropriately.

With the changing nature of the war and the growing responsibility on them, it is necessary that they must be prepared and equipped in the same manner so that they fulfill the growing necessities of time. How well the Afghan security forces are trained and they are ready depends on how well they will counter the Taliban insurgents in the times to come.