Nine Indians among 17 killed in Kabul bombing, shooting (Fifth Lead)

KABUL - Taliban bombers attacked guesthouses in the centre of Kabul Friday, triggering a series of explosions and a gun battle that killed at least 17 people, including nine Indians, a French citizen and an Italian, officials said.

The assault occurred around the City Centre shopping complex and the Safi Landmark hotel, about 300 metres from the Interior Ministry, Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, a senior police official, said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said by phone from an undisclosed location that five Taliban bombers attacked two compounds used by foreigners.

“Our two bombers have been killed and three others are still resisting,” he said. “Around 100 foreigners are surrounded by our forces in one of the compounds.”

His claim, however, was rejected by Sayedzada, who said that all three attackers were dead and the area was fully under the control of Afghan security forces

At least 17 people were killed in the attack and 32 others were injured, he said, adding that three policemen were killed and five others were injured in the gun battle and blasts.

Siamak Herawi, a presidential spokesman, said that an Italian national was killed in an explosion, while the Foreign Ministry in Paris confirmed that a French national was also killed in the attack.

Although the Afghan officials said that four Indians were among those killed, the Indian foreign ministry in Delhi said that “up to nine Indians” were killed in the “heinous terrorist attack.”

“Eight Indians and one Pakistani national were among the wounded,” General Ahmad Zia Yaftali, chief doctor for the Afghan army, said.

The presidential palace said in a statement that President Hamid Karzai “strongly condemned” the attack and said, “Attacks on Indian citizens will not affect relations between India and Afghanistan.”

The attack happened at around 7 a.m. (0230 GMT), when several bombers stormed the residence of an Indian medical team, who work at an Indian-run hospital in Kabul, a police official at the scene, Abdul Baqi, said.

The attackers sprayed the doctors and their aides with bullets before one of them detonated himself inside the compound, causing the front wall of the house to collapse, he said.

The rest of the attackers rushed inside the nearby Park Residence, another guesthouse frequented by foreigners, and the adjacent Safi Landmark hotel and shopping complex.

Afghan security forces, mainly police, took up positions on the roof tops, behind traffic barriers and trees, while others rushed inside a guesthouse to flush out the militants holed up inside the basement, a journalist from the German Press Agency dpa said.

A policeman said explosions caused by several hand grenades had damaged two guesthouses and a hotel. At least two suicide bombers were involved in the attack, said the policeman, who was at the scene and asked not to be named.

Pools of blood could be seen on the ground, the DPA reporter said. The ground was also covered with broken glass from the explosions and mangled parts of at least two vehicles that were destroyed in the attack.

Few people were on the streets on the rainy Friday morning, a public holiday.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said in a statement that it “condemns these attacks unreservedly. The perpetrators behind these attacks have again shown total disregard for the lives of others.”

Friday’s attack was the third on Indian citizens and their diplomatic officials in the past 20 months.

Both Delhi and Kabul have blamed some elements inside Pakistan, including its Inter-Services Intelligence, for the previous bombings against Indian interests in Afghanistan.

India is one of the leading donors for Afghanistan and has spent more than 1 billion US dollars in the country since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Pakistan, which supported the Taliban government before joining the US war on terror, has repeatedly expressed its concerns about India’s growing role in Afghanistan, a country it wants to have no ties with its archrival.