TALIBAN STRIKE ACROSS AFGHANISTAN

TALIBAN STRIKE ACROSS AFGHANISTAN

Taliban militants unleashed a wave of coordinated suicide and gun attacks in Afghanistan on Sunday, targeting the diplomatic area, NATO bases, and Parliament at seven locations in Kabul, and three other eastern cities, but no Indian target was attacked.Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks. NATO said it had reports of attacks in seven locations in Kabul where fighting was still raging. “So far 11 men from the Afghan National Police were wounded in Kabul, and we have no reports of wounded or killed civilians in Kabul,” Interior Ministry spokesman Siddiq Sidiqq said on the phone.At least eight attackers died in a wave of attacks in Kabul, police said as fighting continued to rage in parts of the city.

The militants attacked the area around the Kabul Star Hotel in Wazir Akhbar Khan, while some tried to enter the Afghan Parliament firing rockets but were engaged by security forces and driven back, officials said.The militants also struck at cities in three provinces — an airport in Jalalabad, Logar and Paktia.A number of militants took positions at a newly-built building at Shahr-e-Naw, a neighbourhood of Kabul. They battled with the Afghan forces for several hours after the militants began attacking Western embassies. In a text message to reporters, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said: “Today, afternoon, at 1 p.m., suicide bombings are happening by our Mujahidin at the ISAF headquarters, Parliament building, and other diplomatic offices in Kabul, and our enemies got many casualties.” Another group of militants targeted an ISAF base, the Turkish military base, and a training camp of the Afghan National Army at the Pul-e-Charkhi area of Kabul.Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates to the Jalalabad airport in the eastern city of Nangarhar province, wounding several people, police said. Four bombers tried to enter the airport and two detonated their explosives when stopped at the gate, officials said. Militants attacked Provincial Reconstruction Team in Jalalabad.

                                                   Prof. John Kurakar