[Peace-discuss] Meanwhile, Obama's escalation's not going well
C. G. Estabrook
galliher at illinois.edu
Mon Jan 18 14:37:58 CST 2010
Taliban attacks Afghan capital
Afghan security forces have locked down the centre of Kabul after Taliban
fighters launched a series of attacks on key government targets in the Afghan
capital.
The first attack on Monday was reported close to the presidential palace as
Hamid Karzai, the president, swore in several of his cabinet ministers inside.
The attacks triggered protracted gun battles and at least five people had died
and some 38 more were wounded, according to the public health ministry.
Hours later Karzai said that the capital was under control. However, machine
gunfire and explosions continued to be heard in the centre of the city.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told the AFP news agency that 20
bombers were involved in the attacks, claiming that the intended targets were
the presidential palace and the ministries around Pashtunistan Square.
However, as the bombings came to end, it was clear security had not been
breached at most government buildings.
Rather two shopping centres, a cinema and the only five-star hotel in Kabul were
ablaze, according to Muhammad Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman.
'Suicide bombers'
Mohammad Atmar, the new minister of internal affairs, told journalists that
seven of the attackers had been killed.
A ministry spokesman, Zemarai Bashery, added that two of the attackers had taken
refuge in a building and had been killed.
Farhad Paiker, an Afghan journalist, told Al Jazeera that a suicide bomber had
hit a shopping centre.
"A suicide bomber in a car came towards the foreign ministry. Security forces
tried to stop it and it hit a shopping centre," he said.
"It is really chaotic in the area."
Later a car bomb exploded near another shopping centre, close to the education
ministry.
A security source was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that a suicide
bomber had killed "several police and intelligence officials".
'Fierce gunfire'
Qais Azimy, Al Jazeera's Kabul producer, reporting about 200m from the scene of
some of the fighting, said: "There are hundreds of Afghan army and police and
intelligence officials present. Civilians have completely left the area.
"It is a big question mark how they [the fighters] got so close to the
presidential palace."
David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent who was at the Serena Hotel around
which some of the heaviest fighting took place, said: "We've heard four large
explosions very close to the hotel."
"It is extraordinary that security has been breached to this extent," he said,
adding that it showed the Taliban could act at will.
The Serena Hotel, which is frequented by foreign journalists, was reported to be
on fire shortly after the attacks began.
Chater said there had been recent warnings that opposition fighters had hijacked
six armoured cars and were planning an attack on the capital.
The attack appears to be the most co-ordinated offensive on the capital since
the US-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban from power.
Afghan politicians insisted the Taliban attack held little significance.
Government credibility
"It does not mean the Taliban is strong. It means they cannot target military
targets only the Afghan people. It means that they are weak," Mir Ahmed Joyenda,
an Afghan parliamentarian, told Al Jazeera.
Even so, the attack comes at a sensitive time in Afghan politics with Karzai yet
to finalise his cabinet after disputed elections.
Chater said that the strikes will bring into question the credibility of
Karzai's authority and the military strategy in Afghanistan of Barack Obama, the
US president.
Obama committed 30,000 extra troops to the country at the end of last year, to
be focused on training local security forces, after much deliberation.
The attack also comes ahead of the London Conference on Afghanistan hosted by
the UK, UN and Afghanistan on January 28 on winning the conflict in the country.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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