The Olympian Logo

Taliban show their strength with attack in Afghan capital | The Olympian

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • About Us
    • Buy Photos and Pages
    • Contact Us
    • Plus
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Newsletters
    • Newspaper in Education
    • Subscribe
    • Subscriber Services
    • Archives

    • News
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Databases
    • Death Notices
    • Education
    • Local News
    • Military News
    • Obituaries
    • Politics & Government
    • State
    • Traffic
    • Watchdog
    • Weather
    • Opinion
    • Cartoons
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Opinion Columns
    • Submit a Letter
    • Sports
    • College
    • High School
    • Mariners
    • Preps Stats
    • Seahawks
    • Sounders
    • UW Huskies
    • Politics
    • Living
    • Announcements
    • Food
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Arts & Culture
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Restaurants
    • Outdoors
    • Fishing

  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Place An Ad
  • Mobile & Apps

National

Taliban show their strength with attack in Afghan capital

Jonathan S. Landay - McClatchy Newspapers

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 11, 2009 07:44 AM

KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters stormed two government ministries and the prisons administration center Wednesday in Kabul in simultaneous assaults that killed at least 20 people, wounded more than 50 and underscored the ease with which the insurgents are able to penetrate the heavily guarded Afghan capital.

All eight assailants also died in the audacious midmorning attacks, two by blowing themselves up at the prisons office and the rest in gun battles with the police inside and outside the Ministries of Justice and Education, Afghan officials said.

For more than two hours, gunmen roamed the halls of the Justice Ministry, shooting at staff members inside the building and at police outside, until security forces killed them, officials said.

The assaults came a day before Richard Holbrooke, the new special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was expected to make his first visit to Kabul to assess the worsening violence in the war-torn country.

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Olympian

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attacks, telling privately owned Ariana Television in a telephone call that they were in response to the mistreatment of captured insurgents by the government.

Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told a news conference that 20 people were killed and 57 wounded.

The assaults began at 10 a.m. and sent bystanders outside the two ministries, in the traffic-choked heart of the city near the presidential palace, scurrying for cover.

Amanuddin Jamal, who was walking outside the Justice Ministry, said a gunman began firing an assault rifle at guards at the building's entrance as four other assailants blasted their way inside.

"There was a person who had a shawl wrapped around him. He began shooting from a Kalashnikov and his companions entered the Justice Ministry," Jamal said.

Mohammad Daoud Amin, the district police chief, said police officers returned fire, killing the attacker, while the four gunmen stalked the halls inside shooting ministry staff.

Justice Minister Mohammad Sarwar Danesh was in his office at the time, but was escorted out of the building safely, Amin said.

Security forces exchanged fire in the building for more than two hours with the gunmen, who on several occasions loosed fusillades of bullets from windows at police officers deployed outside.

Several employees were seen fleeing the building, their faces creased in terror.

Meanwhile, a man dressed in the uniform of the National Security Directorate, the country's top intelligence agency, stepped out of a car and approached the gate of the Education Ministry, which is about 500 yards from the Justice Ministry on the opposite side of Zarnigar Park.

Several witnesses said the man opened fire with an assault rifle at a wooden guard booth on the wall that surrounds the building, and died when police shot back.

"He emptied his magazine and was putting another into his weapon," said Najibullah Haideri, a ministry guard. "My commander ordered him to lay down his gun, but he continued shooting and my commander shot him."

The third assault occurred at the department of prisons in a northern section of the city, said Gen. Mohammad Arif, a senior official at the facility.

He said that two "suicide attackers" approached the entrance from different directions.

"One of them faced resistance by the guard at the gate and he blew himself up. The second one got into the building and blew himself up. In total, seven people were killed," Arif said.

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY:

Obama's biggest foreign policy challenge? It's Pakistan

U.S. supply routes to Afghanistan suffer two huge blows

Will Obama support Karzai's re-election in Afghanistan?

U.S. unlikely to seek more NATO forces in Afghanistan

  Comments  

Videos

Key moments since Jussie Smollett reported attack

2019’s Most Sinful States in America by WalletHub

View More Video

Trending Stories

Undercover child sex sting leads to arrest of 22 men, many from the South Sound

February 21, 2019 04:28 PM

State commission removes 2 Thurston Conservation District board members from office

February 21, 2019 09:06 AM

Tumwater School District names 3 finalists for superintendent

February 21, 2019 03:36 PM

Olympia will offer free yard debris drop-off this weekend

February 21, 2019 10:06 AM

Realtor, sports consultant say they are running for Lacey City Council

February 21, 2019 07:00 AM
Local display advertising by PaperG

Read Next

Patriots owner Kraft denies charges of soliciting prostitute
Video media Created with Sketch.

National

Patriots owner Kraft denies charges of soliciting prostitute

By TERRY SPENCER and JOSHUA REPLOGLE Associated Press

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 22, 2019 07:40 PM

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is denying misdemeanor charges of soliciting a prostitute.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Olympian

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE NATIONAL

Wake Forest dean apologizes after 37-year-old yearbook photo resurfaces

National

Wake Forest dean apologizes after 37-year-old yearbook photo resurfaces

February 22, 2019 01:36 PM

National

Patriots owner Robert Kraft is among the hundreds charged in Florida sex traffic sting

February 22, 2019 09:23 AM
Judge dismisses charges over boy’s death on waterslide

Business

Judge dismisses charges over boy’s death on waterslide

February 22, 2019 02:47 PM
Dove, Reddit founder champion paternity leave, offering new dads $5,000 grants

National

Dove, Reddit founder champion paternity leave, offering new dads $5,000 grants

February 22, 2019 02:01 PM
Robber bound cashier, customer with duct tape — and lit one on fire, Texas cops say

National

Robber bound cashier, customer with duct tape — and lit one on fire, Texas cops say

February 22, 2019 12:56 PM
Play turns deadly when woman’s boxer-mix dogs attack her in family yard, SC cops say

National

Play turns deadly when woman’s boxer-mix dogs attack her in family yard, SC cops say

February 22, 2019 11:33 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

The Olympian App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Contests-Promotions
  • Vacation Hold
  • Rewards
  • Pay Your Bill
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Photo Store
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Information
  • Place a Classified
  • Local Deals
  • Place an Obituary
  • Today's Circulars
  • Special Sections
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story