KABUL (AFP) — The spiralling number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan are often carried out by young Afghan men who pass through religious schools in Pakistan, a United Nations report said Sunday.
Some attackers appeared driven by anger at the presence of international forces and the civilians being killed in their anti-Taliban operations, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) study said.
Others were motivated by religious zeal or were young boys who had been abducted and forced into the task or somehow persuaded they would survive and earn rewards such as cash, a motorcycle or a cell phone, it said.
There were 77 suicide attacks in the first six months of this year, about twice the number for the same period last year and 26 times higher than from January to June 2005, the survey said.
This year to June, suicide bombings killed 193 people, 121 of whom were civilians even though three-quarters of the attacks were targeted at Afghan and international security forces, it said.
Sixty-two Afghan security personnel and 10 international soldiers were also killed.
To the end of August this year there had been 103 attacks, compared with 123 for the whole of 2006.
The first such attack in Afghanistan was carried out by Al-Qaeda operatives exactly six years ago (September 9, 2001) and killed famous Soviet occupation resistance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the report said.
There were five between 2001 and 2005 -- and they jumped in 2006 to become today an "integral part" of the Taliban's strategy but also used by other Islamist anti-government groups.
Little was known about the attackers said the study, based on interviews with about two dozen men jailed in Kabul for failed suicide attacks, and analysis of data and media reports.
"They appear to be young (sometimes children), poor, uneducated, easily influenced by recruiters and drawn heavily from madrassas across the border in Pakistan," the report said.
The "majority of those who came from Pakistan are Afghan, but not all, either refugees or coming in and out of Afghanistan," UNAMA head Tom Koenigs told reporters ahead of the document's release. There are more than two million Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
The report, however, cited a "senior" Taliban commander, who was not identified, as saying that more than half were not Afghan citizens, with some coming from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Arab countries.
He also said 80 percent of suicide attackers passed through recruitment centres, training facilities or safe houses in Pakistan's Waziristan area.
"The tribal areas of Pakistan remain an important source of human and material assistance for the insurgency generally but suicide attacks in particular," the report said.
Nonetheless, Afghans were also providing "necessary support to suicide cells within Afghanistan such as safe houses, training facilities and in many cases explosives."
Koenigs said the rise in suicide attacks impeded progress in reconstruction.
It also contributed to the alienation of people from government since "the state and its security forces are perceived to have failed to ensure the necessary safety and protection."
"People might think this suicide attacking only stops if the Taliban succeeds," he said.
To stem the rise in suicide attacks, the report said international forces must stop causing civilian casualties and work to "uphold the dignity and honour of Afghans, to avoid provoking outrage in the population and a ready supply of volunteers for jihad (holy war)."
Troops had this year killed about the same number of civilians as the rebels had, it said.
Muslim nations should be encouraged to send troops to join the mostly Western forces, and Afghan soldiers should take more responsibility for security operations, it said.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
