The Taliban send 20 suicide bombers into the capital today to wreak their havoc. I’m surprised many more weren’t killed. As bad as it sounds, first reports are that 12 were killed and 7 of them were Taliban. I just have a hunch there’s more to it. Many many more should have been killed with that kind of firepower rampaging through the city.
(AFP)- Residents and shoppers were scurrying for safety after a blinding flash announcement of the latest eruption of Taliban violence in Kabul.
Sirens sounded through the deserted streets as ambulances and fire engines sped towards the main fighting in Pashtunistan Square, where Taliban militants laid siege to major buildings in the heart of the capital. A massive explosion shook the city as television pictures showed one of Kabul’s few shopping malls burning and billowing black smoke.
“I saw police and soldiers running all over the place, they seemed like they were trying to stop a car,” said AFP driver Aktar Mohammad, who was just 50 metres away from a roundabout near the foreign ministry when a suicide car bomber apparently detonated his vehicle.
“At that time I saw a huge light flash right in front of me, then a big explosion and thick smoke billowing up,” he said, adding: “I just shifted into reverse and drove out of there.”
Police rushed through the crowds of panicked pedestrians fleeing the scene, guns drawn, other witnesses said.
A police officer told an AFP photographer that the suicide bomber had used an ambulance.
Less than a kilometre (half a mile) away, outside the Qari Sami Shopping Centre, formerly one of the biggest fashion outlets in Kabul, security forces took cover behind military vehicles.
They trained their automatic weapons on the building, where Taliban militants were believed to have taken up positions.
International military said they were helping Afghan army and police to secure the area, bringing in humvees and other armoured vehicles.In all, five people including a child were killed, said interior minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, adding seven militants also died — either blowing themselves up or shot by security forces.
The Taliban said it had sent 20 suicide bombers into the heart of the capital, its targets including the presidential palace and the central bank.
A man calling himself Zabihullah Mujahid and claiming to be a spokesman for the militant Taliban organisation added that one militant had detonated a suicide vest at the entrance to the presidential palace complex.
hattip: ZIP
