Word: kabul
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...heart of Kabul was under siege for several hours Monday as Taliban insurgents launched their biggest assault on the capital in months, with gunmen opening fire outside the presidential palace and at least two suicide bombs being detonated. The attack seemed intended to send a message to Afghan President Hamid Karzai that his government's plan to try to bring Taliban fighters over to its side with an incentive package of jobs and education programs - in addition to the surge of 30,000 additional U.S. soldiers being deployed to the country - will be met with fierce resistance by the militant...
...were quiet again. Karzai told reporters that security forces had regained control of the city and were searching for any militants who might still be hiding. Authorities said at least five people - three security forces and two civilians - were killed and 71 people were wounded. The U.S. embassy in Kabul immediately condemned the attack and pledged that the U.S. would "continue to stand with the Afghan people and their government and with our allies and partners around the world to defeat our common enemy and build a more secure and prosperous future...
...Kabul has been battered by bomb blasts over the last several months - including an Oct. 28 attack on a U.N. guesthouse that left 11 people dead - but Monday's attack represented a sharp escalation in the violence. Farida Nekzad, an Afghan journalist based in Kabul, told TIME that the insurgents targeted places frequented by foreign diplomats and ordinary civilians alike. Authorities said several insurgents stormed the Ferushgah shopping center and ordered people to get out before firing shots from the roof and then setting the building ablaze. Other militants reportedly struck a movie theater, a hotel popular with Westerners...
...that dramatic attacks will still occur in the country despite the extra troops on the ground. Monday's commando raid seemed to prove the point. For a few hours, insecurity reigned and a bit of the government's hard-won progress slipped away. - With reporting from Shah Barakzai in Kabul...
...Jihadi Diplomacy Re "Talking with the Taliban" [Nov. 30]: The article datelined Kabul seems to have missed one very important piece of the puzzle: Pakistan, whose porous boundary with Afghanistan and record of intervention there must not be forgotten. Three things must happen for progress: 1) the formation of good government in Kabul, 2) a reconciliation with warlords and Taliban who are not totally possessed by the ideology of the extremist fringe and 3) guarantees from Pakistan to no longer meddle with Afghan affairs. While the first two could still be possible, the third one is a mirage...