NYT : Karzai Escapes Attack in Kabul by Gunmen

Karzai Escapes Attack in Kabul by Gunmen

By CARLOTTA GALL and ABDUL WAHEED WAFA | April 28, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan — A well-coordinated assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai by suspected Taliban insurgents at the Afghan national day military parade in central Kabul has turned into a moment of national embarrassment for the government, which has been pressing to take over responsibility for Kabul’s security from foreign troops.

Three people were killed Sunday in the brazen assault, ruining what was supposed to have been a proud moment for Afghan security forces. The ability of the attackers to get so close to Mr. Karzai, who escaped unhurt, suggested they had inside help.

The dead included a tribal chief and a member of Parliament who were in the reviewing stands near Mr. Karzai, and a 10-year-old boy caught in the cross-fire as militants and security forces aimed at each other, officials said. Eleven people were wounded, among them army officers, police officers and civilians, hospital officials said. Several suspects were arrested later.

The attack sent officials and foreign diplomats scrambling for cover in the stands and hundreds of soldiers running off the parade ground in disarray. Mr. Karzai was whisked out the back exit, and the ceremony was abandoned after Afghan security forces had spent weeks preparing and rehearsing.

The military, police and intelligence services, all of them involved in security for the ceremony, quickly began laying blame on one another for failing to thwart the attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying its aim had been to disrupt the ceremony and show that it could strike in the heart of the capital.

“We cannot say Afghanistan is free,” Zabiullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, said when contacted by telephone. “Afghanistan is still under the domination of infidels.”

The last time Kabul was hit by such a well-coordinated terrorist attack was in January. Six people were killed when militants with links to Pakistan’s tribal areas tried to storm a five-star hotel in coordination with a suicide bomber who breached the gate security and a gunman disguised as a police officer who shot at civilians in the lobby.

Afghan security forces in Kabul have mostly faced lone suicide bombers and car bombings in the last several years and appeared to have been surprised by the brazenness of Sunday’s attack on such an auspicious occasion. The attackers apparently worked in two teams, one firing mortars and the second firing guns into the V.I.P. stands from a nearby hotel.

It was not clear how the gunmen had managed to bring weapons so close to the parade ground, but the Taliban claimed to have received help from within the government forces.

“The full responsibility goes to the security ministries,” said Noor ul-Haq Uloomi, a former general who is chairman of the parliamentary security committee. “It’s because they always think about the quantity, and not the quality, of the forces.”

In the days before the parade, Kabul was flooded by police officers and intelligence agents who blocked roads and checked cars. Police officers were stationed at the hotel used by the gunmen, but apparently did not search individual rooms.

The gunmen were firing from a third-floor room of a three-story hotel 500 yards from the parade ground, according to a witness, Ahmad Naweed, 35, who lives behind the hotel and heard the firing and saw gun flashes. The police quickly surrounded the hotel and fired at a window covered by plastic sheeting instead of glass, he said.

“There were security measures, but not precise measures,” Mr. Uloomi said. “Still, we cannot claim that we have security forces of quality to take over the security of Afghanistan.”

Mr. Karzai has survived at least three previous assassination attempts, but this was the first in the capital.

He appeared on television within an hour of the attack and told Afghans that everything was fine.

“The enemy of Afghanistan, the enemy of the security and development of Afghanistan, tried to disrupt the celebration and tried to create fear,” he said. “Fortunately, the Afghan security forces surrounded them, and some of the suspects were arrested, and, thank God, now everything is all right and the people of Afghanistan should be calm and confident.”

The military parade was staged in front of the Eid Gah Mosque for the national day known as Mujahedeen Day, which celebrates the victory of the Afghan resistance to the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. Cabinet members, Parliament members, ambassadors and other guests were assembled in the stands as Mr. Karzai and Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak inspected the military and police units from open-roof military vehicles.

Then they returned to the main stand and stood as the national anthem was played and an artillery gun salute was fired. After the first four or five volleys, a mortar round slammed into a main street outside the parade ground. It was followed by gunfire and then a second mortar, said a general who had been standing close to the president. The American ambassador, William B. Wood, was also at the ceremony but not harmed, a spokesman told news agencies. Afghan state television, which was showing the ceremony live, cut off coverage as people fled.

In television images, two Parliament members sitting 30 yards from Mr. Karzai could be seen falling to the ground as gunfire rang out.

The leader of an ethnic minority known as the Qizilbash, Nasir Ahmad Latifi, was killed by bullet wounds to his chest, a relative confirmed later.

Fazel Rahman Samkanai, a member of Parliament, died in the hospital of his wounds, a doctor at the military hospital confirmed, asking not to be named for fear of retribution. A second legislator, Muhammad Daud Zazai, was wounded but was out of danger, he said. Both victims were from Paktia Province, southeast of Kabul.

Three army officers, police officers and civilians were among those wounded. Four of the wounded were in critical condition, the doctor said.

Security officials at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that three people had been killed and nine arrested in the raid on the hotel.

The military spokesman, Gen. Zaher Azimi, confirmed that a number of suspects had been arrested. A military officer at the scene was overheard reporting the incident on a telephone and said that 12 men had gathered at a restaurant near the parade ground before the attack and had stashed automatic rifles and mortars there. He said two had been killed and the others arrested.

Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.