Thursday, April 9th saw another Taliban attack which killed at least 10, including a district police chief and two police officers according to Reuters, and wounded 66 others with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons. This attack took place in a court in Mazar-e-Sharif, a northern city in Afghanistan. Acting provincial police chief of Balkh Abdul Raziq Qaderi stated, “Five security personnel and five civilians were killed and 66 others were wounded.” This attack is the latest in a procession of aggressive actions by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
On April 2, a suicide bomber killed 16 and wounded 40 others at an anti-corruption rally, while on the 29th of March, a failed suicide attack targeting a local member of parliament killed three others, including a child and wounding seven others, according to the AFP. On the 10th of April, five aid workers who had been kidnapped by the Taliban were found dead. The Save the Children workers were found dead after a 39 day abduction in the central province of Uruzgan. The Taliban have also been blamed for poisoning 100 schoolboys in the western city of Herat. Aged 10 to 14, these children fell ill after eating beans that “would help them pass their examinations” from an outside vendor, according to Reuters, which states that while this was likely an accident, the Taliban have utilized food poisoning before.
Friday, April 10th saw two separate suicide attacks on NATO convoys, killing three and wounding four others, as stated by the AFP. Another 12 civilians were killed in their minivan by a roadside bomb on the same day. The 8th of April saw the police chief of Gereshk district in the Helmand province, Hekmatullah Haqmal, being killed by a roadside bomb, as part of a convoy attacking a Taliban force. A recent United Nations report has stated the number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan jumped 22 percent in 2014, with “a total of 10,548 casualties last year.”
Only recently, Barack Obama announced that he would not be withdrawing 5,000 United States troops this year as planned, which has understandably served to further antagonize the Taliban and reduce the likelihood of a peace deal. This decision has been praised by many in Afghanistan, who feel that continued international security is required to maintain peace in the nation, according to AFP.
The Taliban Cultural Commission recently released a document stating that Mullah Omar is still alive and the leader of the Taliban, despite numerous rumors of his demise. The Taliban have recently stepped up their propaganda attempts by releasing its magazine Azan, which aims to provide “a platform for the Muslims of the world to see the truth for what it is and also a way for them to participate in this global effort to destroy the enemies of Allah and His Messenger,” according to Haroro J. Ingram of the Australian National University.
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