KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Why is it that terrorists claim to be targeting the ‘far enemy’ and almost always hit their own people?
In Islamist terrorist jargon there is a difference between what they term the ‘near’ enemy and the ‘far’ one. The former tends to include governments they do not like, in part because these governments tend to monitor and capture/kill them. I can see why that would make you an enemy in their eyes.
The latter, on the other hand, refers to the nations which the terrorists think are aiding and abetting the governments trying to neutralise their efforts, or actually present in the form of overseas (counterterrorism) military deployments. The US in Afghanistan/Iraq, France in the Sahel, and Kenya in Somalia would qualify in that regard.
What, then, accounts for why a terrorist group attacks unarmed innocent civilians in its own backyard?
On this day in 2016
Afghan Taliban terrorists claimed responsibility for a truck bomb attack on a compound for civilian contractors near Kabul airport in which at least 30 Afghan civilians, including nine children, were wounded. There do not appear to have been any deaths, thankfully, although a police officer on the scene said he had seen at least three dead bodies.
The car bomb detonated at the gate of Camp Baron on the military side of Kabul airport.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior
Nevertheless, a spokesman for the Taliban, which often issues exaggerated casualty figures, said dozens of foreigners had been killed or wounded. OK, maybe, but what about the nine children? Were they also ‘near’ enemies?
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