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| Afghanistan |
| Rebels killed, rocket attack pre-Kabul conference |
| 2010-07-21 |
| [Dawn] Nato troops said they killed several insurgents preparing to attack a major international conference in Kabul, with the Afghan capital under security lockdown for the high profile event on Tuesday. The alleged militants were killed during a raid on a house on the southern edge of the city overnight, Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said, suspecting the Taliban of plotting an attack on the conference. Two other militants were captured while "pursuing a Taliban facilitator believed to be in final stages of preparation for attacks against the Kabul conference," it said. Automatic weapons and ammunition were impounded, the military said. Isaf had already said that others had been captured elsewhere in the city last week also said to be plotting attacks on the landmark meeting. The Taliban have stepped up attacks on the heavily fortified Afghan capital and last month fired rockets towards a giant tent where a domestic peace conference was held during President Hamid Karzai's opening address. But thousands of Afghan and Nato forces on Tuesday led watertight security measures, shutting roads and banning traffic within several kilometres (miles) of the foreign ministry where the conference was taking place. The airport was shut, Monday and Tuesday declared public holidays and access to even pedestrians seriously restricted by armed police and soldiers manning makeshift checkpoints and security barriers in the heart of the city. The interior ministry said suspected militants fired rockets into Kabul late Monday, landing near the airport but causing no casualties. Karzai used the landmark conference -- billed as the largest international gathering in Kabul -- to say that his government was working to assume full leadership by 2014 and demanded greater control of aid money. |
| Posted by:Fred |