Taliban attacks rocks Kabul; Afghan interior ministry holds Haqqani network responsible for attacks
KABUL, (SANA): A series of explosions followed by sustained gunfire shook the Afghan capital on Sunday in what appeared to be a coordinated attack by militants on three neighborhoods frequented by Afghan government officials and their international allies; meanwhile the Afghan interior ministry held Haqqani network responsible for the attacks.
There were attacks about the same time in two other eastern cities Jalalabad and Gardez. There were no immediate reports of casualties from those assaults, but details were sketchy and the fighting was still going on.
The first explosions in Kabul struck the central Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, which is home to a number of embassies and a NATO base. Gunfire erupted soon after the blasts, forcing people out in the street to quickly take cover. Smoke could be seen rising from a few buildings in the neighborhood as sirens wailed.
More than 10 explosions in all shook the capital, and heavy gunfire continued to shake the city more than 30 minutes after the initial blast.
Militants who had staked out positions in a tall building were firing rockets in different directions, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. It was not immediately clear what they were targeting, but shots appeared to be focusing on the nearby British Embassy.
At about the same time, residents reported a blast near the parliament building across town. A police officer in the area, Mohammad Assan, said there was an attack involving shooting near parliament.
It was the first attack in Kabul since a shooting inside the Interior Ministry in February in which a ministry employee turned a gun on NATO advisers and shot two soldiers dead.
Automatic gunfire and 7 explosions rocked the central diplomatic enclave close tothe US and the British Embassies in Kabul on Sunday.Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade into a house used by British diplomats in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Sunday as part of a coordinated assault in several parts of the city.
Smoke billowed from the building after the blast in the heavily guarded diplomatic quarter. There was no word on any casualties.
The Taliban said they and other militant groups were behind a coordinated assault in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Sunday which included attacks on the British and German embassies in the heavily guarded, central diplomatic district. The Taliban also said they were carrying out attacks in several Afghan provinces.
Ends-SANA-ZSD
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