Taliban sends a chilling message

As if the bombing on the bus that killed 35 policemen and wounded dozens of bystanders in the heart of the Afghan capital was not enough, a coalition air strike on suspected Al Qaida-Taliban militants hiding in a seminary in the east of the country killed seven children.

In the messy, increasingly complicated war against the insurgency, civilians are becoming the unwitting targets. The Kabul suicide bombing was the fifth in three days, indicating the stepped-up use of a mode of attack perfected in Iraq in which militants have homed in on government employees.

The Taliban's motive is all too clear - punish the "collaborators" who work for the government. In Afghanistan, where jobs are scarce and wages scarcer, this is cruel indeed. Dozens of families effectively lost their main bread-winner on Sunday. Countless more have seen their hopes of a better life die as their country descends into violence. In a nation, trying to leave the bad blood from 30 years of war behind, where the need of the hour is sustained development and reconstruction, the men who back the Taliban should be asked whether increasing the hardship of the ordinary man on the street, or for that matter the village, serves any real purpose other than to add to the miseries of an impoverished people.

As for the other side, the growing international outcry against the collateral damage that accompanies strikes against Al Qaida targets must be taken on board by the coalition forces. The Taliban undoubtedly use civilians as human shields. But other means must be found to protect hapless Afghans caught in the middle of someone else's war. Some 6,000 people were killed in Afghanistan in the past 17 months. Of these, 1,500 were civilians.

Oppressed populations are always unpredictable. Both sides should be warned. Fear and apathy can as easily turn to anger.