Word: kabul
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...Many in the country's fledgling parliament are also up in arms and say President Karzai has resurrected the department to placate conservative mujahedin warlords and fundamentalist clerics. With a violent insurgency in the south and riots in Kabul highlighting the government's unpopularity, Karzai is seeking to shore up his support base by courting conservative Islamists. Most girls' schools have already closed in the south and southeast under spiraling threats, and groups like Human Rights Watch are concerned that policing public morals could divert attention from the bigger battle to stem unrest in the volatile southern provinces...
...Ahead of President Karzai's election in 2004, crude rockets fell weekly around the Kabul. But until May, the capital had been relatively insulated from the chaos in the south, which has left hundreds dead in recent weeks. This week may mark a turning point. Two blasts tore through buses in the morning rush hour, one carrying Afghan soldiers and another filled with government officials on their way to work - a day after two similar blasts near government ministries. There hadn't been a major bombing in Kabul since March. when a suicide bomber tried and failed to kill...
...Taliban claimed responsibility for this week's blasts and said they were flexing their muscles to show that they could sow fear outside their traditional southern strongholds. Taliban spokesman Mohammed Hanif said that the recent attacks showed they could strike at the enemy in Kabul and the normally quiet northern provinces...
...People in Kabul were shaken by the string of explosions, and the streets were visibly quiet as groups of police and Afghan soldiers searched vehicles at major intersections. "Everybody is scared," said first lieutenant Ahmad Shah, a traffic policeman in Khair Khana who witnessed one of the bombs. "There is fear in the city today and you do not see many cars. It is because of these explosions, which show the weakness of the government...
...Over the last few months, Taliban-led violence has crept closer to Kabul, with militants taking control of districts within four hours' drive of the capital. Now, nowhere seems immune from the violence. "I vary my route every day on the way to work but was running late and could have easily been on the road where the bomb struck," said a Western businessman who has an office near the site of one of the bombs. "It was a wake-up call...