Militants attack Afghan peace conference on 1st day

June 3, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan

The thump of rockets and the rattle of gunfire punctuated President Hamid Karzai’s speech opening a national conference Wednesday where delegates were divided over whether to negotiate peace with Taliban leaders to end nearly nine years of war.

Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests fired at the tent holding some 1,500 dignitaries, lawmakers and civil- society activists, triggering a battle with security forces that killed at least two militants. Three civilians, but no delegates, were wounded.

One rocket landed with a thud about 100 yards from the tent and kicked up smoke. Karzai brushed off the interruption, about 10 minutes into his address, and urged fighters from the Taliban and another major insurgent group, Hizb-i-Islami, to lay down their arms.

“My dear Taliban, you are welcome in your own soil. Do not hurt this country, and don’t destroy or kill yourselves,” Karzai said, emphasizing that more fighting would only prevent the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.

“Make peace with me, and there will be no need for foreigners here,” Karzai said in the nationally televised speech.

The attack underscored the Taliban’s opposition to what they have dubbed a “phony reconciliation process” stacked with Karzai’s supporters. They insist they will not negotiate until all foreign troops leave the country.

The Obama administration supports overtures to rank-and-file insurgents but is skeptical of a major political initiative with Taliban leaders until militant forces are weakened on the battlefield. NATO troops are preparing for a big offensive this summer in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province.

No official militant representatives were invited to the three-day conference, although some delegates are insurgent sympathizers. Karzai’s government said it organized the gathering, called a peace jirga, to gauge the mood of ordinary Afghans toward negotiations.

Government ministers, including former warlords Abdur Rasul Rayyaf and Vice President Gen. Mohammed Qasim Fahim, relaxed on couches and other plush chairs in the front row, while other delegates had less comfortable seating choices in the cavernous tent pitched on a university campus in Kabul.

The delegates largely shrugged off Wednesday’s attack. But some said it demonstrated the weakness of the government and its security forces in the face of an insurgency that has maintained momentum despite a buildup of U.S. troops.