Afghan Taliban imitating Islamic State's terror tactics to intimidate local forces

The Taliban in Afghanistan is reportedly imitating the Islamic State's terror tactics to instill fear among local forces as US troops exit the country.

According to The Washington Times, in late 2012 the Islamic State, based in Syria and with cells in northern and western Iraq, launched a campaign of terror and its brutal strategy centered on detonating vehicle-born improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) in crowded areas and killing local government and military leaders.

The IS used the same tactic to scare off the Iraqi army and its unit commanders as it spread itself in Iraq.

Retired ArmyLt. Gen. James Dubik, an analyst at Washington's Institute for the Study of War said that patterns similar to the ones that emerged in western Iraq and northern Iraq in the end of 2012 to the middle of 2013 leading to the collapse of Iraqi Security Forces was now showing up in Afghanistan.

He said that the frequency, the lethality and the complexity of attacks in Kabul and in the east were disturbing, adding that the attacks were carried out to either intimidate or kill leaders in the Afghan National Security Forces.

Dubik said that while the tactics were similar, terror and assassination and intimidation were common to almost all insurgencies.