Taliban attack Afghan presidential palace, ministries (Fourth Lead)

KABUL - Fighting raged across central Kabul Monday after militants occupied a building near the presidential palace and started firing on other government facilities.

A total of seven Taliban bombers, two civilians and three security officers were killed and 71 people wounded as the four-hour standoff between government troops and militants occupying two buildings ended, officials said.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and assured Kabul residents that the security forces were in control of the city, his office said in a statement.

The attack began during morning rush hour when one suicide bomber detonated his explosives in front of the Central Bank, and the presidential palace, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghan Interior Minister, told a press conference.

Five minutes later three militants took up position inside the five-storey building of Foreshgah Buzerg Afghan shopping complex, from where they began firing at at the Finance and Justice Ministries and Serena Hotel.

While the fighting was still ongoing in the shopping complex, another suicide bomber, who was driving an ambulance targeted another shopping centre near the Foreign Ministry.

Although Karzai assured Kabul residents of removal of the threats in the city, fighting was still ongoing for another one hour with militants barricaded inside a cinema building also in downtown Kabul.

Afghan Intelligence Chief, Amrullah Saleh told reporters in Kabul Monday evening that the last two militants were killed by Afghan security forces after they refused to surrender inside the occupied building.

Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, speaking at the same press briefing, said that most of the 35 civilians were wounded when the militants began tossing hand grenades inside the shopping area.

The two dead civilians included a child, he said.

Farid Rahid, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, said that a large number of the wounded people had received minor injuries and were released from the hospital after treatment.

Atmar said the bombers were trained outside of Afghanistan, saying, “We don’t have training centres for suicide bombers inside the country.”

He did not say where the attackers came from, but Afghan officials in the past have accused Taliban militants, who are based in Pakistani tribal areas, along the border with Afghanistan, of plotting against Afghan government and international troops’ targets in the country.

Although Afghan security chiefs insisted that only seven attackers entered the fortified area around the presidential palace on Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said by telephone from an undisclosed location that as many as 20 Taliban fighters and suicide bombers had entered the city to target government buildings, including the presidential palace.

A rocket also hit the garden of the Serena Hotel, the only five-star hotel in Kabul, one of its foreign guests said.

Mujahid claimed that several foreigners had been killed at the Serena Hotel, adjacent to the Foreshgah Buzerg Afghan shopping centre, but the hotel guest said they had been moved to the basement for their safety.

The attack took place on the same day that President Hamid Karzai swore in his new cabinet at the presidential palace.

Afghan parliament approved 14 out of 25 cabinet members in two round of voting, extending the two months of political uncertainty that began after Karzai was sworn in as president for the second five-year-term in November.

Karzai also appointed care taker ministers for the remaining ministries, a presidential spokesman said, adding that the president needed to a form a full functioning government before a conference on Afghanistan in London later this month.

Prior to Monday’s attack, Afghan authorities had deployed heavy security on Kabul’s streets because the government had feared a Taliban attack on the capital.

Speaker Younus Qanooni, citing intelligence agencies, told parliament days ago that the Taliban had stolen armoured vehicles to carry out an attack in Kabul.

A legislator said one of those vehicles was used in Monday’s attack, but his assertions were rejected by security officials.

Taliban fighters have carried out several attacks involving multiple bombers against government buildings in Kabul in the past, but Monday’s incident seemed to be their most brazen assault.

The militants attacked a UN guesthouse in Kabul Oct 28, killing six international workers and prompting the world body to evacuate more than half its foreign staff from Kabul.