Taliban gunmen carried out a brazen assault on the centre of Kabul today, 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 US president Barack Obama is trying to rally support for an expanded US military mission to fight them.
It was the worst attack on the city in nearly a year and came as President Hamid Karzai was swearing in cabinet members.
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.
Security officials said at least nine attackers were killed, five inside the shopping centre and four who blew themselves up elsewhere. The Health Ministry said four Afghan security force members and a civilian were killed and 38 people wounded.
"The security situation is under control and order has once again been restored," Mr Karzai said in a statement after more than four hours of battles, when security forces finally recaptured the burning shopping centre.
The Defence Ministry said other fighters were still holed up in a cinema and fighting was still under way some hours later.
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 centre of town.
When the attacks began outside Mr Karzai's sprawling palace compound, he was inside swearing in new members of his cabinet.
"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," Mr Karzai told ministers. "The danger that could harm Afghanistan is sowing national discord among Afghans."
The attacks were a blow for an initiative to lure Taliban fighters to lay down their arms, which Mr Karzai plans to announce at an international conference in London this month. The initiative is a key part of Mr Obama's new strategy, which will also see 30,000 extra troops sent to turn the tide against a mounting insurgency.
While the siege was on, a suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle outside another shopping centre nearby killing several police and security officials. A rocket later struck near a cinema hundreds of metres away.
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 UN staff at a guest house, underscore the city's vulnerability.
Reuters