Taliban insurgents launch attack as Afghan peace conference starts

Taliban insurgents launch attack as Afghan peace conference starts
Published June 01, 2010
| Associated Press

AP2010
June 2: Afghan President Hamid Karzai asks attendees of the peace jirga to take their seats after hearing an explosion during his opening address in Kabul.
KABUL, Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a national peace conference as it opened Wednesday in the Afghan capital, sparking gunbattles outside the venue. Two attackers were killed and one captured but no delegates were hurt, an official said.
The attack, reportedly including rocket fire, started within minutes of President Hamid Karzai beginning his opening address to some 1,600 dignitaries gathered for the conference, known as a peace jirga, in a huge tent pitched on a university compound.
The Taliban, which had earlier threatened to kill anyone who took part, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to The Associated Press, saying it was intended to sabotage the three-day conference.
Karzai hoped that the jirga, which continued despite the attack, would bolster him politically by endorsing his strategy of offering incentives to individual Taliban fighters and reaching out to the insurgent leadership, despite skepticism in Washington about whether the time is right for an overture to militant leaders.
But the attack underscored the weak grip of Karzai's government in the face of the Taliban insurgency, which has grown in strength despite the presence of growing numbers of U.S. forces.
Karzai made an appeal to the Taliban — telling them their actions are keeping the international forces they resent in the country.
"You should provide the opportunity for the foreign forces to leave," Karzai told the conference. "Make peace with me and there will be no need for foreigners here. As long as you are not talking to us, not making peace with us, we will not let the foreigners leave."
About 10 minutes into his speech, Karzai was briefly interrupted by an explosion outside, which police said was a rocket. Karzai heard the thud, but dismissed it, telling delegates, "Don't worry. We've heard this kind of thing before."
Soon afterward, an AP reporter nearby heard a loud explosion and saw smoke rising from a second apparent rocket attack that struck about 100 meters (yards) from the venue.
Bursts of gunfire could be heard to the south of the venue, and security forces rushed to the area. Helicopters flew overhead.
Farooq Wardak, a government minister responsible for organizing the jirga, said three militants dressed in burqas and carrying explosives and armed with guns and at least one grenade launcher were involved in the attack. Two died in fighting outside the venue and one was captured, he said.
He said they were operating from a building about 1.5 kilometers (one mile) away from the venue.
It was not immediately clear if they had attempted to breach the venue itself on foot. Police officer Kamaluddin, who goes by one name, said a suicide bomber detonated explosives a few hundred yards (meters) from the tent, but other officials could not immediately confirm that.
Lt. Col. Joseph T. Breasseale, a spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan, said some insurgents were shot, but reports were unclear as to how many.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid gave a slightly different account of the attack. He said a group of four suicide attackers disguised in Afghan army uniforms had opened fire in an attempt "to sabotage and destroy this peace jirga."
Abdul Sattar Khawasi, a lawmaker from Parwan province attending the jirga, said the ability of the militants to launch the attack underscored the weakness of Karzai's administration.
"Unfortunately this shows the weakness of the government, and the weakness of the security forces, that they were unable to provide enough security for this consultative peace jirga," he said.
One prominent civil society activist expressed skepticism that the conference could help bring peace. Delegates include individuals with links to militants but not active members of the Taliban and other insurgent groups.
"I'm not very hopeful that we will come up with a workable mechanism to go for peace. The reason is we don't have the opposition with us. It's obvious from their attacks," said Sima Samar, the head of the Afghan Human Rights Commission. Samar said she was not invited to the conference itself, only to the opening speech.
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Associated Press Writers Amir Shah and Heidi Vogt and AP Television News cameraman, Habib Samim contributed to this report.
Taliban attacks Afghan peace jirga



Afghan police captured one Taliban fighter and killed two others after an hours-long shootout [AFP]

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has opened a three-day peace conference in the capital, Kabul, amidst rocket fire and at least one suicide bombing.
Several rockets were launched at the tent housing the conference, locally called a "jirga", during Karzai's opening speech on Wednesday. Long bursts of gunfire were also heard nearby.
A suicide bomber also blew himself up near the tent, according to Afghan police. No casualties were reported, except for the bomber. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said police killed two other fighters, and captured a third, in a house near the conference site.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the attackers were dressed in Afghan army uniforms.
The Afghan president left the area in an armoured convoy after his speech.
Security was a major concern in the weeks leading up to the conference: Extra police have been deployed throughout the capital, and journalists reported long delays at checkpoints Wednesday morning.
The Taliban warned delegates to stay away in an audio recording released last month, saying that "the punishment for participating in the jirga is death".
"I think some Afghans... will say, if they can't even secure the area around the gathering that they've talked about for months on end, with the immense security preparations they have in place, what chance do they have of trying to secure the rest of the country?" said Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Kabul.
Searching for consensus
Delegates hope to reach an agreement at the traditional assembly of elders on how the government should hold dialogue with the Taliban.


Analysts say the delegates - which were selected by the government, and include tribal leaders, politicians, and members of civil society - are likely to reach a broad agreement on engaging the Taliban.
The plan calls for the government to offer jobs to low-level Taliban soldiers who agree to stop fighting.
In his opening address, Karzai criticised the Taliban for bringing suffering and oppression to Afghanistan.
"The Afghan nation is looking at you," he said, addressing the delegates. "They await your decisions, your advice, so that you can show the Afghan nation the way to reach peace, to rescue Afghanistan from this suffering and pain."
Barack Obama, the US president, has called the conference "an important milestone that America supports". European diplomats have also hailed it as a "crucial step to demonstrate national consensus".
Staffan de Mistura, the head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, said he was cautiously optimistic that participants in the jirga would agree on a deal.
"I believe they're tired of fighting... the Afghans are tired of a conflict that they will never win, that nobody else will ever win," he said.
Scepticism
But critics of Karzai's government, and many outside analysts, are sceptical that the conference will produce a detailed blueprint for reconciliation with the Taliban.
Karzai's main rivals have been excluded from the conference and representatives from the Taliban and groups like Hezb-i-Islami were not invited.
Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's chief rival in last year's presidential election, declined to attend the conference, saying the hand-picked delegates do not represent Afghan public opinion.
Elders in several provinces, including Helmand and Khost, say the most influential tribal leaders were rejected in favour of those loyal to the government.
The Taliban is also dismissive of the event. In a statement sent to news organisations on Tuesday, the group said the conference does not represent the Afghan people, and is aimed at "securing the interest of foreigners".
Human rights groups say the list of delegates is too male-dominated: Only 20 per cent of the conference attendees will be women. The number of women was increased after Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, warned Karzai that women were being ignored.


Taliban attack Afghan leaders' meeting
Taliban suicide bombers and rockets attack Afghanistan talks as Hamid Karzai launches peace plans
Smoke rises from the site where the Taliban fired a rocket near the venue of the Afghanistan National Peace Jirga in Kabul. Photograph: S. Sabawoon/EPA
The Taliban deployed suicide bombers and rockets to attack a major meeting of Afghan leaders today, moments after President Hamid Karzai launched his plans for making peace with the insurgents.
The three-day "Peace Jirga" had just begun with a speech by the Afghan president when the first rocket exploded somewhere near the compound that houses the country's loya jirga tent – a large white marquee used for important national meetings.
Nearby, security officials exchanged fire with insurgents before a suicide bomber detonated explosives, killing himself. There were no reports of other casualties.
Karzai, who had just been recalling how senior members of the Taliban regime had crossed to the government's side soon after the US-led invasion of 2001, laughed off the incident.
"Sit down, nothing will happen," Karzai told the 1,600 delegates, some of whom left their seats to try to see what was going on.
"I have become used to this," said the president, who has survived a number of assassination attempts, before continuing with a speech where he promised to continue to pressurise US-led forces to reduce civilian casualties and bring an end to unpopular night raids.
Another explosion was heard from an apparent rocket attack that landed close to the venue. Soon after finishing his speech, Karzai left the tent in a convoy of armoured vehicles as helicopters hovered overhead. Small arms fire could still be heard an hour after the first attack.
The Taliban, who have successfully deterred some delegates from the country's most insecure areas from attending, claimed responsibility for the attack saying the suicide bombers had been dressed as members of the Afghan security forces – a tactic used many times in the past.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said the police and army had surrounded a building near to the perimeter of the Loya Jirga tent where he said some militants were based.
Despite the disruption one of the diplomats in the tent to observe the opening of the event said that there was only "mild apprehension" among the delegates.
"There was just a mild flutter in one quarter but in general people are pretty used to this kind of thing," said George Noel-Clarke, an EU political officer in Kabul.
"The Taliban are clearly trying to embarrass him but he dealt with it quite well."
The jirga, hailed by western leaders as a critical first step to peace was dismissed yesterday as a "PR exercise" by the leader of the country's opposition, who said he would not attend the event.
Abdullah Abdullah – who won millions of votes and came second in last year's presidential elections – said the way delegates had been selected by government officials meant they did not represent all Afghan opinion: "Had it been a national jirga and a national effort we would have supported that effort."
He said the event "seemed like a PR exercise to show that we are making an effort to reach peace in this country".
Huge amounts of effort went into organising the three-day conference which is being held in the same cavernous marquee that was used for the 2002 loya jirga that agreed Afghanistan's post-Taliban constitution.
The National Consultative Peace Jirga will be asked to consider an ambitious government proposal to offer jobs and other economic incentives to Taliban foot soldiers who agree to stop fighting.
Such schemes are unlikely to be too controversial. Far more divisive, however, will be how future negotiations with the Taliban should be handled and what, if anything, should be offered to insurgent leaders in return for peace.
Foreign officials say a broad national consensus is essential to avoid the perception that any peace deal is, in the words of one western diplomat, a "Pashtun to Pashtun stitch-up".
The 1,600 delegates include some 550 women, the number of which were increased after Hillary Clinton expressed concerns to Karzai that women risked being overlooked.