The assassination of Afghanistan’s former president, who was heading the government’s efforts to reconcile with the Taliban, has shattered the fledgling peace process there and raised fresh questions about whether the U.S. will be able to stick to the Obama administration’s troop withdrawal timetable, U.S. intelligence officials said.
A suicide bomber who hid explosives in his turban killed Burhanuddin Rabbani after embracing him during a meeting at Rabbani’s home. An ethnic Tajik, Rabbani was president of Afghanistan from 1992 until 1996, when he was driven out of Kabul. In 2010, he was selected by the Afghan government to lead the High Peace Council.
The killing came a week after insurgents mounted a nearly 20-hour attack on the U.S. Embassy and International Security Assistance Force facilities in Kabul that left seven civilians and six of the attackers dead.
The recent insurgent attacks in the country’s capital are part of the Taliban’s plans to frighten the people of Afghanistan who are losing faith in the U.S.-led coalition’s ability to bring security and stability to the fragile region, U.S. officials said.
“The ethnic groups will perceive this as an attack against them,” said a U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This wasn’t the first attack against a minority.”
In May, Gen. Mohammad Daud Daud, police commander for northern Afghanistan who was also an ethnic Tajik, was killed by a Taliban suicide bomber posing as an Afghan police officer.
Gen. Daud Daud, who was highly regarded by U.S. and NATO officials, was a former military commander of the Northern Alliance who fought the Taliban.
“Rabbani’s assassination reinforces the belief among elements of the former Northern Alliance that attempting to negotiate with the Taliban is futile,” said Lisa Curtis, a former CIA analyst who is now at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington.
The Obama administration was counting on the Taliban reconciliation process to help stabilize Afghanistan as the American drawdown begins. The High Peace Council has been criticized by Afghan experts for not producing substantive peace negotiations with Taliban leadership.
Many have criticized the group as being dominated by former members of the Northern Alliance which fought the Taliban government until it was overthrown in 2001, and for not having members with strong ties to the Taliban.
Curtis said Rabbani’s assassination “will also intensify ethnic divisions in the country, which may have been the objective of the masterminds of the bombing.” She added, “The extremist forces that oppose peace and reconciliation in the country seek to use the ethnic card to create more chaos and instability.”
The Obama administration needs to reconsider its plans to withdraw 33,000 U.S. forces by next September and demonstrate instead that the U.S. is committed to ensuring the country never again becomes a haven for global terrorists, Curtis said.
That message is echoed by Afghans as well.
“There is serious concern that the Taliban is gaining strength and that the northern tribes are not being represented,” said a former Northern Alliance member who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The situation is becoming more unstable. It shows the peace process is not working and plans to withdraw U.S. troops at this point is only giving the Taliban strength.”
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at mailto:[email protected] “>[email protected].
