Tuesday 25 June 2013

Taliban attack Afghan presidential palace, CIA office; three guards killed.


Taliban attack Afghan presidential palace, CIA office; three guards killed.

KABUL |AFP |25 June 2013:: Taliban militants attacked an entrance to the Afghan presidential palace with gunfire and car bombs on Tuesday, just a week after insurgent leaders opened an office in Qatar for peace talks.
Three Afghan security guards were killed when Taliban gunmen and bombers attacked the presidential palace and CIA base in Kabul on Tuesday, officials said.
“Three guards assigned at the first entrance are dead and another of them is wounded,” Rafi Ferdous, a government spokesman, told AFP
t was one of the most brazen attacks in the capital since President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped assassination in April 2008 when the Taliban attacked an annual military parade in Kabul.
Gunfire and explosions erupted for more than an hour after the attack began at 6:30 am, sending smoke into the air above a high-security area of Kabul that also contains many embassies and official buildings.
Two four-wheel-drive cars using fake Nato International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) badges tried to pass through a checkpoint to access the sprawling palace grounds, police said.
“The first vehicle was checked and let in, and as the second car tried to get in the guards became suspicious and tried to prevent it,” Mohammad Daud Amin, the Kabul deputy police chief, told AFP. “The clash started and the cars were detonated. All the attackers were killed.”
Police said the cars had been fitted with radio antennae to make them look like ISAF vehicles and that the three or four attackers were also wearing military uniforms.
No civilians were hurt in the attack, but police were unable to confirm if any palace security guards had been injured.(Courtesy:Dawn)

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