Afghan Taliban attack near Kabul airport

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Seven heavily armed Taliban fighters launched a pre-dawn attack near Afghanistan's main airport Monday, apparently targeting NATO's airport headquarters with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and at least one large bomb. Two Afghan civilians were wounded and all the attackers were killed after an hours-long battle.

It was the third time in a month that insurgents have launched a major attack in the Afghan capital, seeking high-profile targets to rattle public confidence as Afghan security forces take over most responsibility for protecting the country ahead of most foreign troops' withdrawal next year.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government would not be deterred by the attack.

"These cowardly terrorist attacks on the Afghan people cannot change the chosen path of the Afghan people toward progress, development, peace and elections," Karzai said, referring to next spring's president poll to elect a new head of state.

Karzai was not in Kabul during the attack, but was visiting the Gulf state of Qatar, where he was discussing his country's stalled peace process and the possible opening of a Taliban office in Doha.

Both Afghanistan and the United States support the opening of a Taliban political office in Qatar as part of an effort to rekindle talks with the insurgent group, which has been waging war against the government and U.S.-led military coalition for nearly 12 years. But first the Taliban must renounce all ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups and accept Afghanistan's constitution.

Officials said the attackers fired into the vast, sprawling compound from outside its perimeter. The airport itself was not damaged and reopened shortly after the fighting was over, said airport chief Yaqub Rassuli.

"There was no damage to the runway. Some shrapnel fell nearby, but we have cleared it away," Rassuli said.

Police said that attackers wearing suicide vests occupied one or two buildings under construction on the west side of the airport and began firing at the NATO facility, which was quite a distance away. It was unclear whether they hit anything inside that facility.

Two Afghan civilians were wounded, but there were no deaths among either security forces or civilians, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the insurgents were targeting NATO headquarters.

The international military coalition said it was assessing the situation and had no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The U.S.-led NATO coalition's Joint Command headquarters at the airport runs the day-to-day operations of the nearly 12-year-old war against insurgents. The airport's military side is also used for the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, as the coalition is known, for transport and other aircraft.

"I have no operational reporting of any ISAF casualties or damage to ISAF casualties," said coalition spokesman German Gen. Gunter Katz.

He said that "we can expect attacks and high profile attacks," from the Taliban as part of the spring offensive announced earlier this year. He said that "despite a number of attacks in recent days" the coalition still considered that "overall the security "situation is improving."

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said there was no damage to his country's facilities or helicopters stationed at the airport and he attributed that to the quick killing by security forces of an insurgent who was firing rocket propelled grenades at the facility.

The attack began with a loud blast at around 4:30 a.m.

"It started just after dawn prayers and I counted about a dozen explosions, mostly RPG fire, coming from (near) the airport," said Emayatullah, who lives next to the airport. Like many Afghans he uses only one name.

Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said that after the initial blast, at least five insurgents then occupied two buildings, located in a single compound, and started firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.

"Sometimes they are shooting from one building, sometimes from other," he said during the fighting. "It is a residential area and the compound has been surrounded by Afghan security forces. The security forces surrounded the buildings and are being careful because it is a residential area."

Deputy Kabul police chief Dawood Amin says there were seven attackers in total. Two blew themselves up with suicide vests at the start of the assault and five were shot and killed by police during the battle.

Sediqi praised the work of the police in repelling the attack and preventing civilian casualties, saying it showed Afghan forces are up to the job of fighting insurgents on their own.

"This should be an example for those who dare to attack Afghans in the future," he said.

The Taliban have launched intense attacks across the country, testing Afghan security forces as foreign combat troops pull back more than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban regime for sheltering al-Qaida's leadership after the Islamic extremist group launched the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

The last big attack in Kabul was May 24, when six suicide bombers attacked a guest house belonging to the United Nations-affiliated International Organization for Migration, killing three people ? including a police officer, a guard and a civilian. On May 16, a suicide bomber had rammed a car into a NATO convoy killing 15 people, including two American soldiers and four civilian contractors.

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Associated Press writer Amir Shah contributed from Kabul.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-taliban-attack-near-kabul-airport-061149768.html

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