News Analysis: Taliban insurgents exploiting new Afghan government's debility

KABUL (Xinhua) - Taliban militants fighting the Afghan government to regain power have intensified their activities of late and in the past two weeks have launched 10 suicide bombings and deadly attacks in Kabul, one of which left four suicide bombers and six civilians dead and injured dozens of others.

Afghans have also experienced bloody blasts late this week as a suicide car bomb claimed the lives of three people including the bomber and two police in Nawzad district of the Taliban's former stronghold, in the southern Helmand province.

Two more blasts left 29 people injured in the eastern Khogiani and the northern Mazar-e-Sharif city on Friday.

However, local observers believe that political uncertainty and the failure of the government to form a new cabinet has invited Taliban militants to conduct more coordinated attacks.

"The government has failed to introduce even one minister over the past 60 days. This is a failure of the government," a political analyst and lawmaker, Ghulam Hussain Nasiri, said in talks with local media on Thursday.

He also added that the government's failure had "bolstered Taliban militants' will "to increase the frequency of the attacks.

Even on Friday, the hardliner militants have conducted three blasts elsewhere in the country, which have killed two policemen and injured 32 others, including 26 civilians who were offering Friday prayers in a mosque in the eastern Khogiani district.

President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani who assumed office on September 29 and inked the security pact - Bilateral Security Agreement ( BSA) with the United States the next day - has yet to form a new cabinet and all the ministries and provinces have been run by acting ministers and provincial governors.

Afghanistan's lower house of parliament has warned the government would lose its legitimacy if fails to introduce new ministers imminently.

"Personnel of national security forces including from the police and army have been sacrificing their lives in the war on terror to ensure security in the country," Nasiri said, adding the political leadership should form a new cabinet and outline its new security plan to effectively tackle the country's security issues.

In addition to conducting two suicide attacks in Kabul on Thursday, the Taliban outfit also launched a massive attack on a military base in the Shurab district of Helmand province late Thursday night, triggering heavy fighting which is still going on.

A senior army officer in Helmand province, Ghulam Farooq Parwani, in talks with reporters said Friday that five suicide bombers had been killed and two others are still recovering.

He also confirmed that five soldiers had been killed and seven others injured, a claim rebuffed by Taliban self-appointed spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, who said that the militants had inflicted huge casualties to army personnel in the Shurab area.

Meanwhile, many Afghans believe that the increase in Taliban militancy is a response to approving the BSA by Afghan parliament, which allows US-led coalition forces to keep a limited number of troops stationed in Afghanistan beyond 2014.

Continued militancy and frequent suicide attacks has caused grave concern to Afghans - to the point that many believe that leaving home nowadays is a life-or-death decision in some parts of Afghanistan.

"It is crystal clear to everyone that the government has failed to form its cabinet over the past 60 days," another analyst and Kabul University professor Saifudin Saihon told local media Thursday, adding the failure would boost militants' ability to exploit the situation.

He also added that insurgency and security incidents won't be curbed unless and until the trust between the people and the government is fully restored.