How to curb rising suicide terrorism in Afghanistan

While the majority of suicide attackers are foreigners, some Afghans have been influenced by the increased proliferation of extremist propaganda and have carried out suicide attacks.

A number of Afghan refugees have attended Pakistani madrassahs, where they were radicalized and immersed in extremist ideologies. And Al Qaeda, which still operates in neighboring Pakistan, continues to spread its extremist global ideology in Afghanistan. Western intelligence agencies have reliable, current information that both Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are in Pakistani areas bordering Afghanistan.

How can the US and Afghan governments counter the growing use of suicide attacks? Lessons from Iraq, Israel, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere suggest that at least three steps are critical: improving intelligence, increasing law-enforcement capabilities, and countering extremist ideology.

The Afghan government must enhance the capacity of its intelligence services to disrupt the suicide support network by better infiltrating the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Suicide attackers rarely work alone. There is a critical network that provides financial, logistical, and reconnaissance support including such functions as target identification and time, date, and location of the attack.

Police training should also be enhanced to better deal with suicide tactics. Currently, Afghan national police go through several weeks of training, but receive no specific training on threat assessment for suicide attacks. Training should incorporate tactics, techniques, and procedures to detect and deter suicide terrorism. Police should be provided the necessary resources to handle the threat efficiently.

Most important, the Afghan Ulama, or council of religious leaders, need to continue playing a major role in countering the extremist ideology of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The Afghan Ulama has issued fatwas, or religious decrees, that unambiguously oppose suicide bombing. But they must keep reiterating that suicide bombing does not lead to an eternal life in paradise, does not permit martyrs to see the face of Allah, and does not allow martyrs to have the company of 72 beautiful maidens in paradise. It is also important for the Ulama to emphasize that the battle in Afghanistan is not between Islam and the West, but between forces of progress and those who wish for Afghanistan to remain weak and divided – a fact which discredits Mullah Omar's argument.

Afghanistan has made enormous political strides since 2001. It would be shameful for this progress to unravel because of the inability of the US and Afghanistan to counter the proliferation of extremist tactics. Success in the global war on terrorism depends on it.

• Hekmat Karzai is director of the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies in Kabul. Seth G. Jones is a political scientist at the RAND Corporation. Both have conducted field research in Afghanistan on terrorism.

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