KABUL – *Afghan capital Kabul is becoming the main focus of an intensifiedUS-backed battle against the Taliban this year after a series ofhigh-profile attacks exposed major gaps in security.*
“Kabul is our main effort. To harden Kabul, to protect the people of Kabuland the international community that are here,” US General John Nicholson,the top US commander in Afghanistan, told a group of reporters on Wednesday.
The remarks underscored the high degree of concern about the Taliban’sintent to stage high-profile attacks in Kabul, which are aimed atundermining the Afghan government and international resolve after 16 yearsof war.
They are also a reminder that while US and Afghan officials speak withgrowing confidence about the prospects of peace talks with elements of theTaliban, the military is also making long-term preparations for an extendedconflict, including in the capital.
Nicholson said Kabul’s exponential growth from about 500,000 people in 2001to five million today created a haphazard sprawl that was hard to secure.US intelligence agencies were helping Afghanistan map the city so policeand soldiers can better design barriers and checkpoints.
In the past year, insurgents have staged massive bombings in the Afghancapital, including one in January that killed more than 100 people andanother in May 2017 near the German embassy.
No group claimed the May 2017 attack but Afghan and US officials blamed theHaqqani network, a violent militant group affiliated to the Taliban.