Taliban Launch Deadly Attack On Afghan Capital Hours After Obama Visit

KABUL, Afghanistan — At least six people have been killed in an early morning suicide attack in the Afghan capital, the Afghan government said.

A series of explosions and gunfire rang out in eastern Kabul around 6 a.m. near a private armed compound that houses hundreds of international workers. Shooting continued for hours later and it was not clear if the attack was finished, as another large explosion sounded around 8 a.m.

One of the first blasts was a suicide car bomb that exploded near Jalalabad road – one of the main thoroughfares out of the city, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi. A station wagon that was driving past was caught up in the explosion and four people inside were killed, Sediqi said, along with a passerby and a security guard for a nearby building.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

The explosions happened hours after President Barack Obama left Afghanistan after a quick visit where he marked the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death. He spoke to troops and met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The fighting appeared centered around the secure residential compound known as Green Village, but it was unclear if the heavily guarded compound was the target. Smoke rose from the area as flames licked the outside of a burning car.

Near the site of the blasts, men could be seen carrying a wounded man covered with blood, apparently pulled out of the flames engulfing the nearby car.

"These people evacuated a man from the burning car, two bodies are laying there now and three or four other victims were evacuated from the school," said Ahmad Zia, a resident who saw the explosion.

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Comments

[Robster]

07:50 AM on 05/02/2012

More dead Taliban; God is truly great.

[stevebakerguitar]

03:42 AM on 05/02/2012

Still no word about the taxpayer money he just bypassed congress to fund the snake filled pakastains...... He will have to answer these questions from the media ?

[dcnashinsc]

01:20 AM on 05/02/2012

I am so surprised that people were killed in a war zone. Tell me something else that that is not unususal.

[mamacat]

01:16 AM on 05/02/2012

I can't help thinking that what we are doing in Afghanistan - taking sides in a civil war - would have been comparable to Britain and France getting involved in the American Civil War.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for going after Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, but I don't see why we are going after the Taliban.

[jamesjv]

02:11 AM on 05/02/2012

The idea was that the Taliban gave Osama and Al Qaeda safe areas where they had bases to train and plan the 9/11 at.tacks.

[Sixztmom]

10:29 AM on 05/02/2012

Know your history or you are doomed to repeat it. The British did get invloved in the Civil War, they backed the south.

[composerr]

01:05 AM on 05/02/2012

Hey Mr. President,

Now, how was that about having finished off all of those Islamic terrorist? How about
that big attack just after you left Afghanistan? Don't try to fool us again. You have done
little to help the situation in the Mideast.

When they Iranian students were Chanting, "Obama are you with us" You were quiet!!!

Talking doe NOT WIN A WAR, even though you are so proud of your talking ability, which
I compare to a Carnival Huckster trying to coax the crowd to come into his girlie show.

an army combat veteran

[oklaliberal]

03:01 AM on 05/02/2012

If you are a combat veteran I find no honor in your comments.

[sudzbuddy6]

01:02 AM on 05/02/2012

Just another display of a people who have no regard for Obama what-so-ever. Oh look, Obama's here to save the day - Whooopeeee!!!!

[crawfordslc]

01:01 AM on 05/02/2012

I love you President Obama and your family. However get completely out of Afghanistan by 2014, and use the money to repair the U.S. infrastructure that will give many AMERICANS work. The countries Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen will be fighting each other for many decades to come, when greedy and corrupt men will fight for power. Only the American military leaders and the contractors benefit in wars.

[billyknows2]

12:59 AM on 05/02/2012

And the president said, "Nothing has changed but this ploy should help my campaign immeasurably.Now, let;s get out of this s..thole!"

[Dan Crabtree]

12:56 AM on 05/02/2012

Wait a minute here the president just proclaimed the talban were beaten not 14 hours ago..hummm you don;t suppose he..naaa impossible..

[armywifee]

01:40 AM on 05/02/2012

What he did not mention were the drug lords with private armies and garden variety criminals.

[Roy m]

12:55 AM on 05/02/2012

At some point and time you have to let go of someone your trying to help and see if they can stand on their own that time is now. We need to provide some tools to work with and let them stand for themselves now.

[surferlaments]

01:19 AM on 05/02/2012

we don't need to provide them with anything. wasn't the blood enough?

[Roy m]

12:39 AM on 05/03/2012

The blood is why we don't want to fail. Please don't make the blood,our blood being spilled all for nothing.

[ladybugsfavgrand]

12:47 AM on 05/02/2012

AWWW How nice,they wanted until after their leader left the country

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

09:39 PM on 05/01/2012

This disturbing incident just serves as but another example of why we need to withdraw from Afghanistan immediately, which I have been saying for months now, but I will stop mentioning, for it is obvious that the President does not value the 60% of Americans who feel the same way.
No amount of negotiating with corrupt Karzai will win the hearts and minds of rural villagers who witness the deaths of their people....

[DeceptionIsReality]

11:48 PM on 05/01/2012

Just because 60% of Americans agree doesn't make it right, although I do agree. It's time to go.

[Candid Centrist]

12:46 AM on 05/02/2012

It's 69%, and in a Democracy it DOES make them right.

[sudzbuddy6]

12:59 AM on 05/02/2012

60% is a plurality. That's how this country operates. To bad Obama can't seem to grasp that concept. Especially since he's a constitutional "senior lecturer". It's actually laughable to hear people call him a "professor" as he never actually earned the title by education nor honorably. So sad...

http://www.factcheck.org/2008/03/obama-a-constitutional-law-professor/

[Fireslayer]

09:12 PM on 05/01/2012

I am hoping that the disengagement from Afghanistan apparently negotiated today will end the repetition of stories like this. Time long since past for us to get out of the country and let them do their own killing.

[nicothebaker]

08:17 PM on 05/01/2012

Did the President pull the trigger? I know he was somehow directly involved, or will tell us he was.

[Kimm E Gorman]

12:57 AM on 05/02/2012

No Bush and Cheney did!

[vergoton]

08:14 PM on 05/01/2012

Chicago, Illinois has plenty of corruption, high unemployment, highest taxes iin the USA and it needs rebuilding.........................why go all the way to Afghanistan when we have bigger problems at home.............

[pbgardenpet]

08:41 PM on 05/01/2012

He learned all of this in Chicago.

[sudzbuddy6]

01:00 AM on 05/02/2012

Exactly!!!

[billyknows2]

01:05 AM on 05/02/2012

BIG PUBLICITY! That's why.