Security stepped up after Kabul blasts

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan authorities said they would step up security Thursday after simultaneous Taliban attacks on three government offices in Kabul that left 26 people dead as well as eight of the attackers.

The strikes in the capital came ahead of an expected visit by US envoy Richard Holbrooke as part of a regional tour aimed at crafting a new US policy for tackling extremist unrest in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan.

Washington has promised to send thousands of new troops to Afghanistan to help Kabul battle the resurgent Taliban, who on Wednesday attacked the justice and education ministries, as well as the prisons directorate in Kabul.

“We will have to take tougher security measures,” Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said after the strikes, which sparked panic in the capital of the war-ravaged country. Atmar would not give details about the new measures but warned they would likely cause more disruptions to daily life.

After a series of attacks in recent years, the capital has become bogged down by heavy security, with embassies and military bases erecting massive concrete walls around their premises and blocking off entire roads.

The most deadly attack on Wednesday took place at the justice ministry, where five militants were gunned down by security forces and at least 10 ministry employees killed as the gunmen opened fire, the minister said.

A total of 26 people, one of them a teenaged boy, were killed and 55 wounded in the attacks, the health ministry said. Five attackers were shot dead and three died from their own bombs, the defence ministry said. Kabul, Thursday, AFP