Three German soldiers serving with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan were wounded by a Taliban bomb in November 2004.
KUNDUZ PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN – Isn’t it nice when a terrorist group tells you exactly what they think of you as well as what they have in store for you?
If you are a terrorist advertising is your best friend. After all, you want people to know that you are behind a bombing, or a shooting, or flying planes into buildings. You want people to know you are both competent and capable of really big acts of violence. You want people to be afraid, to be very afraid.
That is why most terrorist groups issue a claim in the immediate aftermath of an attack. They want to take credit for their carnage and waiting too long allows other pretenders to get all the glory? Your reputation is only as good as your ability to keep executing acts of terrorist violence.
This is the reason why many terrorist groups expend so much effort on their propaganda. When I was still in security intelligence, it was really hard to keep up with all the statements and magazines (like Dabiq and Inspire) that these organisations were putting out.
Sometimes the propaganda assumed a very simple form.
On this day in 2004
On this day in 2004 the Taliban took responsibility for a bombing in Kunduz Province in Afghanistan that wounded three German soldiers serving with International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF). The claim took the form of a letter left at the scene of the attack.
They were very minor injuries, just ringing in the ears from the blast
ISAF spokesperson
The letter stated that the German soldiers had been targeted as ‘infidels’ and promised more to come. At the time of writing – almost two decades later – the Taliban have been true to their word.
And that is worth a lot of propaganda.
