LONDON (Reuters) – Taliban fighters, who launched an assault in Kabul yesterday, have been ordered to attack in as many places as possible to try to make it look as though they are everywhere, the head of the British army said.
General David Richards said the Afghan security forces had responded well to the attacks, disproving critics who doubted their ability to withstand such an assault.
Suicide bombers blew themselves up at several locations in the Afghan capital as militants battled security forces from inside a shopping centre engulfed in flames. “They (the Taliban) have given orders to their people to attack in as many different places as they possibly can — it doesn’t matter if they are successful or not — in order to reinforce this impression of being everywhere,” Richards said.
“It doesn’t mean we should draw the deduction that they are … hugely popular Robin Hoods,” he said after giving a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.