Fear lingers in Kabul after Taliban attack (News Feature)

By Farhad Peikar Jan 19, 2010, 12:48 GMT

Kabul - Business resumed and streets were calm Tuesday in Kabul, a day after 12 people were killed when Taliban fighters attacked several buildings in the capital, including the presidential palace, in one of the boldest attacks ever carried out by the militants.

But many of the city's residents said they were afraid that some of the bombers and gunmen could still be hiding in Kabul and could target new areas in the war-ravaged capital.

Authorities tightened security Tuesday by deploying more security personnel on the streets and erecting additional checkpoints.

'We are afraid that some of the Taliban could still be hiding here, and for that reason, I told my family to stay away from the centre of the city,' said Abdul Jabar, 48, a government employee.

'After yesterday's attack everyone would think twice about coming to the downtown area,' said Mohammad Hameed, an employee of the Ministry of Mines, which is adjacent to the presidential palace, where the militants began their assault Monday. 'My wife and children were begging me this morning not to go to the office today.'

Taliban militants claimed that 20 of their fighters and suicide bombers entered Kabul to target government buildings, including President Hamid Karzai's office. Afghan security chiefs insisted that only seven Taliban fighters managed to breach the city's security boundaries and they were all killed.

'We heard from TVs and radios that there were 20 bombers in the city, so if the police killed seven of them, where are the others?' asked Mohammad Najeeb, 21, a shopkeeper in Jadeh Nader Pashtun, an area 200 metres from a shopping mall occupied by the militants Monday. 'I am sure they are hiding and waiting for another opportunity.'

'When they [the security forces] could not find the rest of the bombers, it was easy to say that there were only seven suicide bombers,' he asserted.

The Taliban, however, said its remaining fighters had left the city. 'From the 20 forces that entered the city for the operation, seven hero mujahedin were martyred, and the rest have reached their bases according to plan, and they intend to carry out more attacks at appropriate times,' the Taliban said in a statement Tuesday.

Kabul, one of the most secure cities in the country, has experienced several high-profile attacks involving several bombers in the past, but Monday's assault seemed to have been the most ambitious attack against Karzai's government.

During the coordinated strike, a bomber detonated himself near the southern gate of the palace while three others occupied a shopping complex from which they began firing at the Justice and Finance ministries.

While security forces were trying to contain the militants who were barricaded inside the shopping mall and a cinema, another bomber tried to enter the cordoned-off area with an explosives-filled ambulance. The bomber was identified by security forces, but he still managed to detonate his vehicle, engulfing a new shopping centre.

Two civilians and three security officers were killed, and 71 others - half of them civilians - were injured in the nearly five hours of fighting, which came a week and a half before the London conference on Afghanistan. The meeting was expected to set the international community's future strategies on Afghanistan.

The attack also happened around the same time that Karzai was swearing in his new cabinet inside the place.

On Tuesday, the president chaired a meeting in his office of his security chiefs, ordering them to reassess and improve Kabul's security, Karzai's office said in a statement.

The attack paralyzed the central part of the city for several hours. It also exposed the weaknesses Afghan security forces and NATO troops have in stopping militants. The attackers were heavily armed with light weapons and rocket-propelled grenades and penetrated the highly fortified heart of the capital.