Taliban militants attack soft targets in Afghanistan as part of changed tactics

Taliban militants fighting Afghan security forces in their bid to regain power and re-establish their brutal brand of Islamic rule have changed their war tactics, officials and experts here said.

In their efforts to get more media attention and further terrorize the Afghans, the Taliban has turned their guns on soft targets in big cities, including the capital of Kabul, according to Haseeb Sediqi, spokesman for the National Directorate of Security (NDS).

"The enemies have changed their tactics over the past couple of months and as part of the new tactic, the militants have intensified attacks in Kabul to get media attention," Sediqi said.

He said that while the militants have expanded their armed attacks in the capital, they have not abandoned their coordinated offensive in the provinces.

The Taliban fighters have conducted three suicide attacks against vehicles of army personnel in Kabul over the past couple of weeks, leaving 16 people dead and 40 others injured, including civilians, according to local media reports.

In addition to the bloody attacks in Kabul, the militants have also organized series of attacks in other parts of the country.

Taliban fighters, who have been fighting over the past month to overrun the strategic Sangin District in their former stronghold - the southern Helmand province along the border with Pakistan, have planted mines in a wide swath of land to fend government forces from their area of influence.

The fall of Sangin, according to local observers, could pave the way for the Taliban to take Kajaki, Nawzad and Musa Qala districts and eventually for the insurgents to expand their area of influence to neighboring provinces, including Kandahar.

The Taliban militants, who had opposed the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that would allow the continued presence of some 10, 000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, have been further enraged by the signing of the security deal by the new national unity government last week. They have vowed to further escalate their attacks.

Afghan Defense Ministry Spokesman Zahir Azimi said that while the BSA meant that Afghanistan would continue to receive the support of international community, it would, on the other hand, anger local insurgent groups, particularly the Taliban. The Taliban has said the Afghan government is subservient to foreign masters such as the United States.

In the latest offensive to terrorize people, the militants organized a sticky bomb against a police van in the northern Kunduz City on Monday, wounding two civilians and damaging the vehicle, police confirmed.

"The armed insurgent would continue to attack national facilities. It is now incumbent upon the government to utilize the BSA in strengthening the country's national security apparatus to thwart these attacks," political analyst Atiqullah Baryali told local media.