Taliban planning ’spectacular’ attack in Afghanistan
August 10th, 2011 - 7:53 pm ICT by IANS
London, Aug 10 (IANS) The Taliban are planning a “spectacular” terror attack in Afghanistan, the British army commander in the country has warned.
Brigadier Ed Davis, who leads the Task Force Helmand and the 3 Commando Brigade, said that around 2.5 tonnes of home-made explosives have been seized in the past four months. The material could have been used to make around 300 bombs.
Davis said Taliban fighters continue to focus on large-scale terrorist acts, including attempts to assassinate Afghan government ministers.
A few hardcore Taliban are left who are “difficult to kill or capture and sophisticated in their targeting”, Davis was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
“They will look at more spectacular attacks and high-profile attacks targeting ISAF and Afghan commanders. They are very competent, they have been doing this for a very long time and their tactics, techniques and procedures have evolved like ours,” he said.
He said around 40 percent of explosives were found after help from Afghan villagers.
Speaking via a video link from Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, Davis said the British effort to confront the Taliban was succeeding.
He said attacks on British soldiers in Helmand had fallen by 43 percent compared to the same period last year.
Prime Minister David Cameron has set a deadline of 2014 for withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan. The war has claimed the lives of 378 British personnel since 2001.
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