Militants attack as Afghan peace conference starts

[June 02, 2010]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Taliban suicide attackers struck at the national peace conference as it opened Wednesday in the Afghan capital, waging gunbattles near the venue. At least two attackers were killed but no delegates were hurt, officials said.

The attack, including rocket fire, started minutes after President Hamid Karzai began his opening address to some 1,600 dignitaries gathered for the conference, in which he appealed for rank-and-file Taliban members to stop fighting for the sake of the country.

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 they intended to sabotage the three-day conference.

The conference, known as a peace jirga, continued despite the attack.

Karzai hopes it will 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 record numbers of U.S. forces in country.

In his speech, Karzai said years of violence and infighting had caused widespread suffering that had driven many ordinary Afghans to join the Taliban and another major insurgent group, Hizb-i-Islami, out of fear. He appealed to them to renounce extremism.

"There are thousands of Taliban and Hizb-i-Islami, they are not the enemies of this soil," Karzai said.

He said continuing fighting would only prevent the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.

"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," Karzai said.

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, a huge tent pitched on a university compound.

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, carrying explosives and armed with guns and at least one grenade launcher, were involved in the attack. He said two died in fighting outside the venue and one was captured.

However, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said all three attackers were killed.

Kamaluddin, a police officer in the area where the conflict happened who uses one name, said one of the attackers blew himself up during the battle.

Abdul Gaffar Saidzada, chief of criminal investigation for Kabul police, said three police were wounded in the fighting. No civilians were hurt.

Wardak said the militants operated from a building about one mile (1.5 kilometers) away from the venue.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid gave a slightly different account of the attack. He said four suicide attackers disguised in Afghan army uniforms opened fire in an attempt "to sabotage and destroy this peace jirga."

While militants are strongest in the volatile south of the country, where NATO forces are preparing a major operation in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, insurgents have repeatedly shown they can strike in the heavily defended capital as well.

"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," said Abdul Sattar Khawasi, a lawmaker attending from Parwan province.

A prominent civil society activist was skeptical 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.

Wardak rejected Taliban claims the jirga was stacked with Karzai supporters and designed to rubber-stamp the president's plans for reconciliation. He said the possibility of opening talks with the Taliban would only be pursued if the idea was supported by broader Afghan society.

"This jirga is to advise the government who we can talk to and who we cannot talk to," he said.

The Obama administration supports overtures to rank-and-file insurgents but has been skeptical of a major political initiative with insurgent leaders, believing that should wait until accelerated military operations have weakened the Taliban on the battlefield. U.S. officials believe the Taliban leadership feels it has little reason to negotiate because it believes it is winning the war.

[Associated Press; By KATHY GANNON and RAHIM FAIEZ]

Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Heidi Vogt and AP Television News cameraman Habib Samim contributed to this report.

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