Taliban attack Afghan Presidential Palace, CIA office
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban militants targeted the Presidential Palace and
national CIA office in central Kabul on Tuesday morning, with gunfire
and explosions erupting at one of the gates of the complex in the Afghan
capital.
Blasts and gunshots shook the city for an hour after the first
explosions at about 6:30 am, sending smoke into the air in a
high-security area of Kabul that also contains many embassies and
official buildings. Police said that three or four attackers had
approached one entrance to the sprawling palace area and had fled their
explosives-laden car before detonating it.
Kabul Police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told reporters at the scene
that all the militants had died and no security forces personnel or
civilians were killed, giving no further details.
A palace source told AFP that the expansive grounds around the
building had not been breached.
President Hamid Karzai, who lives in the palace, was due to hold a
press event on Tuesday morning and journalists had been asked to report
to the building.
All roads to the palace are permanently closed off, with several
rings of heavy security around the complex keeping people far away.
“A big group of attackers have struck against the CIA office as the
main target and also the palace and the defence ministry nearby,”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
The US embassy sounded its “duck and cover” alarm drill and the
US-led NATO military coalition said on its Twitter account: “Small arms
fire and multiple explosions reported in Kabul.” The last major attack
in Kabul was on June 11 when the Taliban insurgents claimed
responsibility for a suicide car bomb outside the Supreme Court that
killed at least 15 civilians.
Tuesday's attack came during a visit to Kabul by US envoy James
Dobbins after a diplomatic bust-up over the Taliban's new office in
Qatar that was intended as a first step towards a peace deal to end 12
years of fighting in Afghanistan.
About 100,000 foreign combat troops, 68,000 of them from the US, are
due to withdraw, and NATO formally transferred responsibility for
nationwide security to Afghan forces a week ago.
AFP
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