Taliban storms Afghan defence HQ

Worst security breaches in a year:

Afghanistan: A gunman in Afghan army uniform opened fire inside Kabul’s Defence Ministry Monday, killing two soldiers and wounding seven in an audacious strike at the heart of Government claimed by the Taliban.

The attack, which the militants said was aimed at France’s visiting Defence

Minister Gerard Longuet, was the third major assault on Afghan security targets in four days and one of the worst security breach inister Abdul Rahim Wardak was not injured in the shootout, a Western security source said separately, but it is thought that the suicide bomber was shot dead close to the minister’s office.

Earlier, a military source had told AFP on condition of anonymity that three insurgents had managed to enter the building, which faces President Hamid Karzai’s palace, and all were killed.

The ambush inside the tightly secured compound is thought to be the most high-profile security breach since a failed attempt on Karzai’s life in 2008.

France’s defence chief Longuet is currently on a visit to Afghanistan but was not in the building at the time of the firefight.

A French official stressed they had seen “no evidence” that the attack was an attempt to kill Longuet, while his office said he was at Bagram airfield, more than 40 kilometres (24 miles) away, at the time.

The incident is now over and an investigation is under way.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP that Longuet was the target.

“The reason for conducting this attack is the invasion of Afghanistan by the French military,” he said, adding that it was not carried out over the controversial banning of the Islamic full-face veil in France.

The spokesman said the attack was carried out by a sleeper agent in the Afghan National Army, according to the SITE monitoring group, which quoted a communique posted on a Taliban website.

There are some 4,000 French troops stationed in Afghanistan as part of a roughly 130,000-strong NATO-led international force.

The Islamist militia are known frequently to exaggerate claims in relation to their attacks.

Kabul, Tuesday, AFP