Taliban Techniques

There have been rumors all along of various planned attacks, and the insurgents have even pulled off some attacks in Kabul.  Not long ago a suicide motorcyclist killed several Afghan government workers a few blocks from the Embassy, and an IED near a pedestrian bridge also killed and wounded a bunch of civilians.  But there hasn't been a successful large-scale attack since we've been here.  There are actually several insurgencies in Afghanistan: the Taliban themselves, the so-called "ten dollar Taliban," or the ones who plant IEDs for the money; the handful of hardcore foreign fighters, Al Qaeda, and among the criminal thug groups, the most dangerous, the Haqqani network.

According to the news story below, it was Haqqani who was planning attacks in Kabul.  The last time Parliament opened there was an attack; Parliament is due to open tomorrow, so maybe that's no coincidence.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/25/afghanistan.pakistan.arrests/

 Another common insurgent tactic concerns cell phone towers in the south especially.  The insurgents call and threaten cell tower operators if they won't shut down the repeaters after sundown.  And so there are reports of cell phone service outages most nights in places like Kandahar.