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Latest update: 19/01/2010
- Afghanistan - Afghanistan war - terrorism
Taliban attacks govt buildings as Karzai swears in cabinet
Five people died and at least 70 others were injured as the Taliban launched its worst attack in nearly a year, targeting Kabul's government buildings and the presidential palace, where President Hamid Karzai was swearing in members of his cabinet.
By News Wires (text)
REUTERS - Taliban gunmen launched a brazen assault on the centre of Kabul on
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Monday, with suicide bombers blowing themselves up at several locations and militants battling security forces from inside a shopping centre engulfed in flames.
The insurgents failed in an apparent attempt to seize government buildings but demonstrated their ability to cause mayhem at a time when U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to rally support for an expanded military mission to fight them.
It was the worst attack on the city in nearly a year and came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai was swearing in cabinet members inside the heavily fortified presidential palace.
Gunfire and loud explosions shook the city and a huge column of smoke poured out of the shopping centre, where gunmen battled security forces for hours. Sporadic fighting continued in some areas although Karzai said the city was back under under control.
"There were gunshots from security people, there was black smoke inside the building and the security guys escorted us out," Kabul shopkeeper Mohammad Shah told Reuters.
"People carrying RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) went into the basement. The second and third floor are partly burned down."
Three members of the Afghan security forces and two civilians were killed and 71 people were wounded, the government said.
The Defence Ministry said in a statement 10 attackers had been killed, although other officials gave slightly different figures, perhaps not counting bombers who blew themselves up.
"The security situation is under control and order has once again been restored," President Hamid Karzai said in a statement after more than four hours of battles, when security forces finally recaptured the burning shopping centre.
Other fighters continued battling in a cinema, with the last fighting ceasing nearly six hours after the first attack.
The Taliban said 20 of their fighters were involved in the attacks, which they said targeted the presidential palace, justice ministry, ministry of mines and a presidential administrative building, all clustered in the city centre.
"As we were conducting the ceremony of swearing in, a terrorist attack in a part of Kabul close to the presidential palace is going on. This is just one of the dangers," Karzai told ministers at the swearing-in ceremony. "The danger that could harm Afghanistan is sowing national discord among Afghans."
U.S. envoy to the region Richard Holbrooke, who had left Kabul hours earlier for New Delhi, said: "The people who are doing this certainly will not survive the attack nor will they succeed, but we can expect this sort of a thing on a regular basis. That is who the Taliban are."
Initiative
The attacks were a slap in the face for an initiative to lure Taliban fighters to lay down their arms, which Karzai plans to announce at an international conference in London this month.
The initiative, known as a reintegration fund, is a key part of Obama's new strategy, which will also see 30,000 extra troops sent to turn the tide against a mounting insurgency.
A Reuters correspondent at the scene of the shopping centre siege saw the body of a shopkeeper carried out. People wept over the body as gunshots could be heard.
Later, a Reuters cameraman saw the bullet-riddled bodies of two of the militants on the street, outside the building where security forces had dumped them.
Shah, who had escaped the shopping centre, said the gunmen had stormed in after an explosion at the gate to the nearby presidential palace.
While the shopping centre siege was on, a suicide car bomber drove a vehicle painted as a military ambulance to another shopping mall nearby and blew it up, killing police and security officials. The government said it was not an official ambulance and denied it showed that fighters had infiltrated the army.
Three suicide bombers loaded with grenades blew themselves up in different places: one near the education ministry, a second in a crowded square near the central bank and a third outside the shopping centre, a senior government official said.
Government buildings and diplomatic offices in Kabul are heavily fortified but a series of attacks in the past year, including one which killed five foreign U.N. staff at a guest house, underscore the city's vulnerability.
Last February, attackers stormed the justice ministry and other government buildings and Taliban fighters have mounted similar commando raids in other cities.
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Comments (3)
What have happened on earth?
1) Misuses of Islam : Taliban have deliberately on purposes misinterpreting the teaching and preaching of Islam. Smartly making Muslim youths believe in the mystic cajolement turn them to be suicidal bombers.
2) Limitation of normal education : Taliban unable to develop their youth, male or female, getting formal standard education. Conveniently blocking their widen views of out side world. Making them less innovation to leap forward to betterment.
3) Impertinence : Impertinently disrespect the new set up reformed government under the rule of Karzai. Taliban do not understand the function of new governance. Pessimistically taking Karzai-led government as infidel regime funded and supported by "evil powers". Invader of Afghanistan against Afghan national value and sovereignty.
4) Killing of innocents : Blindly staunching suicidal bombing terrorists committed suicide and killing thousands of innocent Afghan civilians. Disturbing social stability and bring in terrorism threat to maliciously worsen the life of Afghan at large.
5) Irrational : Taliban avoid trying to understand the important of people. Conspiratorially, killing innocents to challenge new government. Making Afghanistan in the state of terror. Is it the right way to retake over the ruling regime? Is it the clever method to regain the trust and confident of people?
5) Multinational forces : Will Nato-led international military combatants withdraw while Afghanistan is made into the state of chaos? Definitely, Nato won't simply go away without rational reasons and causes. No matter how many innocent Afghan have been killed, land of Afghanistan is still there under the feet of USA and Nato.
6)Taliban, terrorism, militant, Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and civilians of Afghanistan, this is a land of yours. Standing up yourself legitimate yourself to retake your own country by international application of proper procedure. BY VOTE.
n-missiles
there is no need for taliban to gain access to n missiles. pak stage actors will test fire it and hand over parallal control to them.that will be enough to get the result and save the face from the world to declare they will aprehend the culprit and punish them.
Taliban's Attack
It was seemed that Taliban-link militants took the suicidal bombing attack as a long time planning plot. International forces and local Afghan security forces were facing pernicious attack without the fore acknowledgment. Terrorists were too obvious to make the attack and proudly claimed responsible for it. The casualty was not reported in the news. I believe this is another sad news to all.
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