Taliban attack Afghan government offices in south

[May 07, 2011]  KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) --  Taliban gunmen unleashed a major assault Saturday on government buildings in Afghanistan's largest southern city -- a former Taliban stronghold where international and Afghan forces are trying to establish security and a functioning government.

Shooting started shortly after midday and the gunfire was still ringing through Kandahar city hours later. Government and hospital officials confirmed that the governor's compound, the mayor's office and the intelligence agency offices had all been attacked.

The Taliban said a large number of their militants flooded into Kandahar city with these three sites as their targets. There were also reports of gunfire elsewhere in the city, but these could not be immediately confirmed.

"The Taliban attacked a number of different locations," government spokesman Zalmai Ayubi told The Associated Press, speaking from a safe room inside the governor's compound. He said he could only confirm for certain that the governor's compound and the mayor's office were under assault.

At least 12 people had been wounded, according to officials at the city's main hospital. Dr. Irsan -- who only gave one name -- confirmed that some of the wounded had been caught up in the firefight at the intelligence agency. He said others had been shot in the crossfire around the governor's compound.

There were no immediate reports of deaths from the government, though the Taliban said that their militants had managed to enter at least the governor's compound and claimed that there were deaths.

"A lot of people have been killed," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said.

An AP reporter near the governor's compound said the shooting there was focused at the back of the compound, near the governor's residence. At least two larger blasts were also be heard.

Shopkeepers throughout the city closed down their stores and the streets emptied of people and cars as Kandahar residents bunkered down inside to wait out the fight. Police blocked journalists from getting near the buildings under assault. Military helicopters hovered overhead.

Saturday's attack was the latest in a series of strikes by the Taliban insurgency at a high-profile government installation. Last month, the militant group launched deadly attacks inside the Defense Ministry, at a joint U.S.-Afghan base and at the Kandahar police headquarters. The group also sprung more than 480 inmates from the Kandahar city prison in a stunning jailbreak through a tunnel that had been dug over months.

The attack also came a day after the Taliban issued a statement saying that Osama bin Laden's death would boost the morale of the insurgency and threatening that they would show their strength.

"The martyrdom of Sheik Osama bin Laden will give a new impetus to the current jihad against the invaders," the group said in Friday's statement. "The forthcoming time will prove this both for the friends and the foes."

But Ahmadi said this was not a revenge attack for bin Laden's death but a plot that had been in the works for months.

"This operation has been planned for a long time, for the past month or two," Ahmadi said.

The Taliban said last week, before the strike on bin Laden, that more large attacks were planned as part of their spring offensive.

[Associated Press; By MIRWAIS KHAN]

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