Suicide bombers attacked a compound housing westerners in Kabul yesterday, just hours after US president Barack Obama signed a security pact during a short visit to a city that remains vulnerable to a resilient insurgency.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack which involved a car bomb and insurgents disguised as women on the eastern outskirts of the capital. Seven people were killed, a Gurkha guard and six passersby, and 17 were wounded. The Taliban said it was in response to Mr Obama’s visit and to the strategic partnership deal he signed with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, a pact that sets out a long-term US role after most foreign troops leave by the end of 2014.
The insurgency also claimed their spring offensive, which began two weeks ago with attacks in Kabul, would be renewed today. Mr Obama’s visit came a year after US special forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, in a raid in neighbouring Pakistan.
In a TV address to the American people from a base north of Kabul, Mr Obama said: “As we emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home, it’s time to renew America. This time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end.”
Nearly 3,000 US and Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban rulers were ousted in 2001. – (Reuters)