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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban suicide squad targets Afghan peace jirga |
| 2010-06-04 |
| Taliban suicide commandos on Wednesday attacked a huge gathering of Afghan leaders and notables hosted by President Hamid Karzai to seek consensus on how to end nearly nine years of war. As Karzai addressed more than 1,600 delegates and Western diplomats at the peace jirga, rockets exploded and gunfire erupted near the huge air-conditioned tent in Kabul where the conference was taking place. Officials said suicide bombers wearing explosive-packed vests and dressed in women's burqas targeted the event, which was being protected by 12,000 security personnel, but that the attack was unsuccessful. "The area is under our control now and is cleared," Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP. "Two attackers aged between 17 and 20 years had managed to come to the area using burqas and had entered a house under construction," he said, adding that a third would-be suicide attacker was taken into custody. At least five explosions, believed to be caused by rockets, interrupted the opening of the three-day jirga that Karzai hopes will achieve a consensus within the disparate country on how to end war with the Taliban. The militia -- which is opposed to peace talks until all foreign troops have left Afghanistan -- claimed that it had dispatched four suicide bombers, who were armed with guns and rockets and threatening the jirga from a nearby rooftop. Karzai left the event on schedule after his address, travelling in his customary armoured convoy. Delegates took a scheduled break for his departure, but did not return to their seats for about three hours, with some taking refuge beneath trees from the rocket attacks. |
| Posted by:Fred |