WORLD
It was the worst attack on the city in nearly a year, and came as the Afghan president was swearing in cabinet members inside the heavily fortified presidential palace.
Taliban gunmen launched a brazen assault on the centre of Kabul on Monday, with suicide bombers blowing themselves up at several locations, and militants battling security forces from inside a shopping centre engulfed in flames.
The insurgents failed in an apparent attempt to seize government buildings, but demonstrated their ability to cause mayhem at a time when US president Barack Obama is trying to rally support for an expanded military mission to fight them.
It was the worst attack on the city in nearly a year, and came as Afghan president Hamid Karzai was swearing in cabinet members inside the heavily fortified presidential palace.
Gunfire and loud explosions shook the city, and a huge column of smoke poured out of the shopping centre, where gunmen battled security forces for hours. Sporadic fighting continued in some areas, although Karzai said the city was back under under control.
"There were gunshots from security people, there was black smoke inside the building and the security guys escorted us out," Kabul shopkeeper Mohammad Shah told Reuters.
"People carrying RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) went into the basement. The second and third floor are partly burnt down."
Three members of the Afghan security forces and two civilians were killed, and 71 people were wounded, the government said.
The defence ministry said in a statement 10 attackers had been killed, although other officials gave slightly different figures, perhaps not counting bombers who blew themselves up.
"The security situation is under control, and order has once again been restored," president Hamid Karzai said in a statement after more than four hours of battles, when security forces finally recaptured the burning shopping centre.
Other fighters continued battling in a cinema, with the last fighting ceasing nearly six hours after the first attack.
The Taliban said 20 of their fighters were involved in the attacks, which they said targeted the presidential palace, justice ministry, ministry of mines and a presidential administrative building, all clustered in the city centre.
"As we were conducting the ceremony of swearing in, a terrorist attack in a part of Kabul close to the presidential palace is going on. This is just one of the dangers," Karzai told ministers at the swearing-in ceremony. "The danger that could harm Afghanistan is sowing national discord among Afghans."
US envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, who had left Kabul hours earlier for New Delhi, said, "The people who are doing this certainly will not survive the attack nor will they succeed, but we can expect this sort of a thing on a regular basis. That is who the Taliban are."
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