Fifteen hundred kilogrammes of explosives packed into a truck led to the death of 80 and injured an additional 400 in Kabul on Wednesday. Beyond this, the deadly bombing, reportedly targeting the Green Zone – which houses embassies, diplomatic offices, residences and the Resolute Support Mission compound – in the diplomatic district caused millions of private property damage within a stone’s throw from some of the most key areas in the country. With terrorists making it to Afghanistan’s most populated cities and causing colossal damage to both life and property, questions regarding the capability of the current government to minimise the violence caused by extremism will continue to be raised.
Some of Kabul’s residents are now taking to the streets asking for the resignation of the National Unity Government leaders President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah. They are not to be blamed however, if the government cannot even protect its citizens in the country’s capital, can it be expected to establish its writ across the country? The relative security of the capital was seen as proof of the government’s good work in the country. But now that the chaos has spilled over into Kabul making it just as dangerous as the rest of Afghanistan, can a fractured government hold on to the country when bombing after bombing is pulling the country apart at the seams?
No group has claimed responsibility for the incident as of yet, but at this point, it doesn’t even matter, because the Afghan government has not been able to control any of them.
Western powers will no longer look to provide more support than a few thousand soldiers – the injection of further troops by the US and NATO will also not provide relief from attacks such as this – the Afghan government and security forces have to find an answer to this conundrum on their own, but this looks more impossible by the day.
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