TALIBAN MILITANTS launched a spectacular attack on Kabul yesterday, battling security forces outside the presidential palace, seizing buildings and staging suicide bombings in raids aimed at the heart of the government.
At least 17 people were killed during the assault, which occurred 10 days before the UK hosts a major conference on shifting the burden of fighting insurgents from foreign troops to Afghans.
One team of gunmen exchanged fire with police in an attempt to attack government ministries and the central bank before they were shot down.
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. The Taliban later claimed the attack as a victory, saying 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.
But Afghanistan’s western allies may draw comfort from seeing local security forces overcoming the attackers without substantial visible assistance from international troops. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010)