“I always wondered if they’d start small-scale stuff like car bombings or shooting massacres”
Not IF, WHEN.
And thats why I don’t think this is a taliban effort. They would send a suicide bomber to a mall.
While I agree they’d want to send a bomber to a mall, if they can’t get C4 but can get hands on a rifle, thet’s fine with them. Hell, in Israel they use whatever’s handy, an axe, a truck, whatever.