Taliban airs Kabul CIA office attack video
Experts say propaganda video indicates Taliban has evolved into group capable of sophisticated attacks.
The Taliban has released a video, which appears to show the planning and execution of an attack on the CIA compound in Afghanistan last June.
The video, which Al Jazeera obtained and aired on Sunday, showed the attack during a visit by US diplomat James Dobbins, who was in Afghanistan at that time to revive talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
The fighters used fake US identification cards and wore equipment, making them appear like foreign soldiers with official looking vehicles.
Experts said that the video was a form of propaganda, but also indicated the evolution of Taliban fighters, who are now launching complex attacks against US forces in Afghanistan.
“I think they are effective, they have belief in themselves and they are organised,” Masood Akhtar, a national security analyst from Pakistan, told Al Jazeera.
“The lesson learnt is don’t ignore their competence to get what they wish to do.”
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| Analysis: Taliban attacks becoming more sophisticated |
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify when the pictures were filmed, but the Taliban said the attack was in retaliation for its flag being taken down at its office in Doha.
Last June, Taliban attackers armed with explosives and guns staged a raid resulting in the deaths of at least three Afghan guards.
At least four attackers were also reportedly killed.
The Taliban quickly said it carried out the attack inside one of the most secure areas of central Kabul.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, William Griffin, a US military spokesman, dismissed the tactics used by the Taliban saying they were “not new, or particularly sophisticated”.
“It can be expected that the Taliban will attempt to used different tactics and techniques.”
But Griffin also said that the Taliban had not achieved “any major strategic successes in these attacks”.
Robert Grenier, a security expert and former CIA station chief in Islamabad, however, said that the Taliban remained uncontained throughout Afghanistan.
“The Taliban, as a force, is not contained anywhere,” Grenier said. “They have free access to much of Afghanistan. They can strike virtually anywhere, and they are very sophisticated in doing so.”