Word: taliban
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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...
...insurgents launched their attack around 9:30 a.m., targeting several different locations in the center of the city in swift succession - a bank, two shopping centers, a luxury hotel and government buildings, including Karzai's palace, where several members of the cabinet were being sworn in. According to a Taliban spokesman who spoke to the Associated Press, 20 armed militants carried out the attack, including two suicide bombers who blew themselves up near the palace and in a traffic circle a half mile away. One explosives-laden vehicle was suspected to have been stolen from the government, which would have...
...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, the central bank, the Gul Bahar shopping center and the Justice Ministry. According to a Taliban spokesman who spoke to the Associated Press, 20 armed militants carried out the attack, including two suicide bombers who blew themselves up near the palace and in a traffic circle a half mile away. The streets quickly emptied of people as residents shuttered themselves in their homes. "People are worried," Nekzad...
...similar commando-style raid on Mumbai over a three-day period, killing about 170 people. Analysts say the timing of Monday's attack was also key, as it came at a particularly vulnerable moment for Karzai. In an attempt to turn the tide in the fight against the Taliban, he is expected to unveil a new plan next week in London to offer $1 billion in incentives - including jobs, education programs and other social benefits - to fighters to encourage them to come over to the government's side. Chellaney says the attack "makes a mockery of the plan...
...unnamed Taliban spokesman reached by phone by the New York Times said the assault was in reaction to the government proposal to "reconcile" with and "reintegrate" Taliban fighters into mainstream society. "We are ready to fight and we have the strength to fight and nobody from the Taliban side is ready to make any kind of deal," another Taliban representative, Zabihullah Mujahid, told the Times. "The world community and the international forces are trying to buy the Taliban and that is why we are showing that we are not for sale." (See pictures of Afghanistan's dangerous Korengal Valley...