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Taliban fighters in Pakistan - Source: Reuters -
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At least nine people were killed when Taliban guerrillas,
including waves of suicide bombers, launched a series of daring
attacks in east Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said, in a clear
upsurge of violence.
Suicide bombers attacked, or attempted to attack, government and
security offices and a military post in two key eastern towns,
Gardez and Jalalabad. Gunbattles raged in Gardez amid confused
reports of the fighting.
In Gardez, capital of Paktia province, the US military said at
least three suicide attacks were reported. The Taliban said 15
suicide bombers launched attacks against government
buildings.
Separately, two would-be suicide bombers attempted to attack a
military outpost near the airport in Jalalabad, a former Taliban
stronghold and capital of Nangarhar province, bordering
Pakistan.
The Taliban, leading a growing insurgency against the
Western-backed government and seeking to drive foreign forces out
of Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for both
attacks.
Violence has surged across Afghanistan since thousands of US
Marines and British troops launched major new offensives in
southern Helmand province, the heartland of the Taliban and the
major producer of the opium poppy that funds the insurgency.
The offensives are the first operation under US President Barack
Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and its
Islamist allies and stabilise Afghanistan, which Obama has
identified as Washington's top military priority.
Visiting European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said EU
member states supported the operation, but added security in
Afghanistan was "evolving not in an ideal manner".
"I'm sure when the operation is over we will have a possibility to
say that the situation in general, not only the south part, it will
be better," Solana told reporters in Kabul.
Thousands of extra US troops are being poured into Afghanistan (US
troop numbers will reach 68,000 by year's end) in part to help
secure the August 20 presidential poll, the second in Afghanistan's
short history as a democracy.
The Taliban have hit back across Afghanistan since the Helmand
operations were launched on July 2, with death tolls for US and
other foreign troops, and civilians as well, reaching record
levels in the eight-year-old war.
Such alarming casualties have spurred deep soul-searching in
Washington and London about strategies for the war and how long
foreign troops might have to stay, as well showing worrying signs
of how unprepared Afghan forces are to take over.
"Commando-style"
In Paktia, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by
telephone from an undisclosed location that the insurgents claimed
responsibility for the assaults in Gardez and Jalalabad and that 15
suicide bombers had attacked on Gardez.
Captain Elizabeth Mathias, a US military spokeswoman, said suicide
attacks had been reported against the governor's compound in
Gardez, the police headquarters and the National Directorate of
Security offices.
At one point, Afghan forces were locked in a 20-minute gunbattle
with insurgents who tried to break into government offices, said
Paktia province spokesman Rohullah Samoon.
A Reuters reporter in Gardez said fighting had stopped by late
afternoon. Shops and government offices were shut, and dozens of
Afghan and US soldiers patrolled the streets.
A curfew was placed on some streets near important
buildings.
Two provincial officials in Gardez said at least five members of
the Afghan security forces and three Taliban fighters had been
killed. Samoon said four security officials were also
wounded.
Samoon and an Afghan source working for a foreign aid agency said
at least two of the suicide bombers were dressed in traditional
head-to-toe burqas worn by many Afghan women.
Afghanistan's Defence Ministry described the Gardez attacks as
"commando-style".
The Interior Ministry in Kabul said security forces identified six
suicide bombers. It said four were killed but another two were able
to detonate explosives they were carrying near police and
intelligence offices. The complex attack in Gardez resembled
other recent assaults by the Taliban in eastern Nuristan, Paktika
province and even the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere.
In Jalalabad, NATO-led forces said insurgents tried to attack a
forward operating base. The alliance said in a statement NATO and
Afghan troops killed one bomber before he could detonate explosives
and captured the second.
July has already become the deadliest month of the war for both US
troops and foreign forces as a whole in Afghanistan.
