Taliban launches fierce assault on Kabul

Financial Times: 

Taliban militants launched a spectacular attack on Kabul on Monday, battling security forces outside the presidential palace, seizing buildings and staging suicide bombings in raids aimed at the heart of the government.

Another swarmed through a shopping mall throwing grenades, triggering a siege that ended with the building engulfed in flames. Others barricaded themselves in a cinema.

The most brazen assault occurred near the presidential palace, where gunmen fought police as Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, began a swearing-in ceremony for new ministers. There were several suicide bombings – including one reportedly carried out at a traffic circle by a bomber riding in an ambulance.

The attack was the latest in a series of increasingly daring strikes that display the ability of militants to penetrate the capital’s defences and hit the heart of Afghanistan’s well-guarded administration, spreading fear among the population.

Jamila Sadat, a teacher, was about to walk into the shopping mall when she was hit by flying glass after two blasts rocked the building. “I heard people shouting, ‘don’t come up, or I will kill you’, – they were the insurgents,” she said. Bodies of two dead militants covered by blankets were later laid outside the blazing building.

An official from the Nato-led force in Afghanistan cited an estimate that 10 insurgents were killed, along with five members of the Afghan army and police, and two civilians. Dozens of civilians were wounded.

The Taliban claimed that 20 suicide car bombers were loose in the city, hoping to fuel further panic. Providing commentary on a website, a spokesman claimed the attack as a victory, saying that its holy warriors were “fighting like champions”.

The assault will renew a debate over the feasibility of the Obama administration’s plan to deploy a further 30,000 troops to deal a decisive blow against the Taliban in the next 18 months, before starting to withdraw.

But Afghanistan’s western allies may draw comfort from seeing local security forces overcoming the attackers without substantial visible assistance from international troops.

Mr Karzai said Taliban forces were trying to sow “national discord” and reassured the population that the city was under control. Calm had returned to Kabul by late Monday afternoon.

Posted via email from Jim Nichols