Taliban show sophisticated tactics in Pakistan

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Experts say Taliban have become more aggressive, going for head-on collision with government

ISLAMABAD: Two commando-style assaults in Pakistan in the past two weeks show Taliban can now pierce the iron-fortified gates, concrete barricades and cordons of armed guards that are meant to secure hotels, housing compounds and even police stations across the country.

The level of organisation and sophistication of the attacks has been rarely seen in Pakistan. They are designed to send a message that if the military launches an offensive against the Taliban’s stronghold near the Afghan border it will face a highly determined and well-prepared enemy, analysts say.

A team of suicide assailants in two vehicles opened fire on security guards, then were able to drive through the main gate of the Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar late on Tuesday and detonate a huge bomb close enough to the building to collapse part of the reinforced concrete structure.

The tactics mirrored closely an assault exactly two weeks earlier on a police building and the regional headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence in Lahore.

Mahmood Shah, a former chief of security in the tribal region, said the Peshawar and Lahore attacks mark a shift in strategy for the militants, whose attacks previously have often involved lone assailants with suicide vests, small improvised bombs or gun ambushes.

“It is an improvement in their tactics; they are trying to enter the target through use of force,” Shah said. “It appears that they are in a hurry and they are becoming more aggressive,” he added.

The rush may be due to a widespread expectation that the military is planning to launch a major operation against the Taliban in North and South Waziristan. No plans have been announced, but the military success of the offensive to oust the Taliban from Swat ans surrounding areas has emboldened the government and the armed forces, officials say.

The purpose of the Taliban’s carefully planned attacks was “to send a message to the government to stay away from Waziristan, which is their base,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a defence and political analyst.

“It seems that they are now going for a head-on collision” with the government, he said.

A day after the May 27 Lahore attack, a senior spokesman claimed responsibility for the Taliban and warned of a wider campaign of violence in major Pakistani cities in retaliation Swat offensive.

The offensive is seen as a test of Pakistan’s resolve in fighting militancy and is strongly supported by Washington, where officials have said privately they would welcome a broader operation in the tribal belt.

In September, before the Swat offensive began, a dump truck loaded with explosives blew up outside the Marriott hotel in the capital, Islamabad, killing more than 50 people. In that attack, the truck was driven up to barriers blocking the entrance of the hotel but did not drive through.

Tuesday’s attack prompted fresh concerns about security at embassies and other places where foreigners gather. At Western-styled stores and restaurants in Islamabad, gates and guards with shotguns are already the norm, while the US Embassy and most other foreign missions are clustered within a compound surrounded by a high several other layers of security.

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University in Washington, said such tactics have been used before by Pakistani militant groups in Kashmir, but they have been limited in scope because of the level of military precision required.

“It is very difficult to defend against as it is a forced-entry attack by determined, even suicidal adversaries,” Hoffman said in an e-mailed response to questions. “Like the Mumbai attacks last November, this attack shows a high level of training, discipline, command and control and pre-attack intelligence”.

Other terrorist group may be studying such attacks “and may aspire to emulate them, but the level of training, discipline and command and control are not easily replicated,” he said.

Shah, the former tribal zone official, said the best protection from such attacks was to post sharpshooters and machine guns on the roof of high-target buildings, who could spot assailants as they launched their assault and open fire before they could get close to their target.

“If you have enough imagination you can repel such attacks,” he said. ap

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