Friday, October 31, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters stormed the Ministry of Culture in the heart of Kabul on Thursday, killing five people in an attack the president said aimed at derailing the government’s new effort to draw militants into a peace process and end a seven-year insurgency.
The fighters shot their way inside the building, where one of the militants blew himself up, a police guard wounded in the blast said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and gave a similar account.
“Our enemies are trying to undermine the recent efforts by the government for a peaceful solution to end the violence,” U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai said in a terse statement.
The attack came three days after senior Afghan and Pakistani officials decided at a meeting in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, to reach out to the Taliban militants to propose talks on ending the insurgency. The meeting was part of a process initiated by President Bush and his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts in 2006.
The Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan said the two sides recently had contacts in Saudi Arabia. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the incoming head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, have both endorsed efforts.
Karzai’s remarks suggested that elements of Taliban are seeking to sabotage the nascent efforts for reconciliation. But the attack is not likely to derail the overture because after years of unsuccessfully trying to repress the Taliban by force with the help of U.S. and NATO troops, the government has concluded talks are the only way out of the conflict. The Taliban has proved resilient, emerging with new force this year to challenge the government.
Though the Taliban regularly use suicide attacks against Afghan and foreign forces around the country, they rarely strike in Kabul.
Amir Mohammad, a police guard who was wounded in Thursday’s attack, said three assailants opened fire on police guards outside the Ministry of Information and Culture before entering its cavernous hall where one of them blew himself up.
The force of the blast flung Mohammed onto the street, where he lay unconscious among shattered glass and pools of blood.