Taliban Super Excited About Spring, But Hate Public Transit

In the surest sign yet that the Taliban have no intention of “going green” if and when they get a piece o’ that Kabul Power Pie, today they tried to blow up a bus, and maybe a bakery, as well. So they hate buses…and donuts. Animals.

PHOTO of the bus hit by a suicide attacker this morning in Kabul, wounding 6 MoD personnel & 4 civilians. twitter.com/EsmatKohsar/st…

— Esmatullah Kohsar (@EsmatKohsar) February 27, 2013

The actual target of today’s attack, as it turns out, was a bus taking members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) to work, and apparently the would-be bomber tried to board the bus. Fortunately, he was prevented from doing so, and only wounded seven people: six soldiers and one civilian.

A suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Afghan soldiers to work in the capital early Wednesday, wounding seven people in an explosion that engulfed the undercarriage of the bus in flames, officials and witnesses said.

It’s evident that the Taliban are focusing their efforts on Kabul and the security forces based here as we head into the spring of 2013, but beyond that this is nothing really new or terribly unexpected. The Taliban have to make the case that they should be included at the negotiating table, and that they’re a force to be reckoned with, and they’re doing that just fine at this point. What is encouraging to note is the lack of destruction at any of the attack sites this year.

However, that’s really no indication of anything, either, as the massive events we’ve seen in other places have never been a hallmark of the Afghanistan insurgency. There are tragically notable exceptions, of course, but on the whole Taliban suicide bombings have never been on the same scale of killing as other insurgencies. That’s not to lessen the impact of any of these deaths, as dead is dead and horrific, but body counts are a notoriously inaccurate metric of success.

Regardless…should be an “interesting” spring.