Nowhere Is Safe: Taliban Launch Strike on President Karzai's Presidential Palace

Militants say targeting of Presidential Palace would not affect reconciliation process

Kim Sengupta | The Independent | Tuesday 25 June 2013 | Taliban fighters carried out an audacious suicide attack in the heavily fortified heart of Kabul, with the Presidential Palace and the headquarters of the CIA as apparent targets.

The gunmen had been dressed in military uniform and fake badges and passes for Land Cruisers of the type used by security forces to get into the diplomatic enclave in Afghanistan's capital before opening fire in a gun battle which lasted for 90 minute and left four of the attackers and three guards dead.

Among those caught up in the fighting were a group of journalists who had been waiting for an interview with Hamid Karzai about talks organised by the Americans with the Taliban in Qatar. The US administration had maintained that recent statements made by senior members of the insurgency showed that they were seeking a peaceful end to the conflict.

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Taliban Attack CIA Compound in Latest Afghanistan Violence

Rezwan Natiq and Jay Price | McClatchy Foreign Staff | KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades opened fire on the Kabul offices of the CIA early Tuesday in a coordinated attack in one of the capital’s most heavily fortified neighborhoods, which is also home to Afghanistan’s presidential place and the main headquarters for the U.S.-led international military coalition.

There was no word on damages to the CIA offices or casualties to its guard force, and it was uncertain whether the CIA had been the main target of the attack. The Taliban, claiming responsibility for the attack, said in a statement that the CIA building had been one of its primary objectives, but the presidential palace is also nearby. Three presidential guards died in the attack.

Reporters who were waiting to enter the presidential palace when the attack took place at 6:30 a.m. said the attackers fired at the CIA offices, and smoke could be seen rising from the building, a former hotel, from miles away.

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A Reporter's Eyewitness Account of Taliban Attack

RAHIM FAIEZ | Associated Press | KABUL, Afghanistan — One moment I was standing in a quiet, secure and heavily guarded area and the next it had turned into a battlefield. It was 6:30 a.m., and I waiting with about 20 other journalists for an escort into the palace for a speech by President Hamid Karzai. It was a routine assignment for Kabul journalists, and the presidential compound is a scenic and peaceful oasis lined with pine trees in my chaotic hometown.

Suddenly I saw the four armed men jump out of their vehicle. They kneeled [sic] down and started shooting. Two of them fired at presidential palace security guards stationed at a checkpoint. The two others aimed their weapons at the Ariana Hotel, where the CIA is known to have an office.  READ MORE