Taliban launch raids on Kabul and other Afghan targets

The BBC's Bilal Sawary heard gunfire from his location in Kabul

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Taliban Conflict

Militants have been carrying out what they say are co-ordinated attacks on the Afghan capital Kabul and other targets in Afghanistan.

Foreign embassies, Nato's HQ and the Afghan parliament all came under attack in the first major attack on Kabul in more than six months.
The Taliban said "tens of suicide attackers" had struck in Kabul and Logar, Paktia and Nangarhar provinces.
Reports speak of least 23 people injured and 14 militants killed.
There were no immediate reports of foreign nationals among the casualties.
The last attack on Kabul on this scale was in September 2011 when heavily armed insurgents took over an unfinished high-rise building and opened fire on the US embassy and Nato headquarters. That attack left at least 14 Afghans dead.

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Where was the intelligence to prevent co-ordinated attacks?”

Mirwais Yasini MP from province of Ningarhar

The Taliban said Sunday's attacks marked the start of a "spring offensive". The Taliban "fighting season" tends to begin when the warmer weather melts snow in mountain passes along the border with Pakistan, allowing fighters to cross into Afghanistan.

The British embassy was one of Sunday's targets, with two rockets hitting a guard tower and a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a house used by British diplomats, but no staff were hurt, the Foreign Office later confirmed.
Afghan police say that, in all, 14 insurgents were killed and 14 police officers and nine civilians were wounded.
Smoke billowing Between seven and 10 explosions have been heard in Kabul since the attacks began around 13:15 local time (08:45 GMT).
Insurgents focused their assault on Western embassies in the central diplomatic area and the parliament area but also attacked international troops in the east of the city.
The Taliban listed as targets the German and British embassies, the Kabul Star hotel, Nato headquarters and parliament house. The list also included the ruined Darul Aman palace outside the capital.
Analysis

Bilal Sarwary Kabul

The Taliban have said they are behind the attacks. Last week they warned that a new offensive would start soon. The last major attack in Kabul was last September when insurgents attacked.
This is a large-scale attack, right in the heart of Kabul. Many questions remain unanswered. How did a large group of heavily armed insurgents, with a huge amount of weapons, manage to get inside Kabul and inside the central district of Wazir Akbar Khan?
In their defence, Afghan intelligence officials say they did have prior intelligence about attacks on several locations in Kabul, which helped prevent bloodshed.
But today's attacks have shattered the confidence of Afghans once more. The insurgents have once more shown that they can strike right in the heart of Kabul.

At the parliament, a number of MPs joined the fight against the insurgents, shooting at them as they tried to storm parliament, Kandahar lawmaker Naeem Hameedzai Lalai told reporters.

"I'm the representative of my people and I have to defend them," he said.
Large explosions rattled the diplomatic quarter sector where a Reuters correspondent spoke of black smoke rising from embassies as rocket-propelled grenades whizzed overhead.
Residents could be seen running for cover as sirens wailed.
Some insurgents reportedly took up position in a tall building.
In eastern Kabul, a convoy of French troops returned fire with heavy machine-guns after coming under attack, as did Greek troops inside a base, an eyewitness said.
Two attack helicopters were called in but did not use their weapons.
The international peacekeeping force (Isaf) said Afghan forces had taken the lead in repelling the attacks in Kabul, and had proven themselves to be "highly effective".
However, images from Kabul and the provinces appeared to show Isaf and US troops and aircraft in the area of fighting.
Provinces targeted A suicide attack closed the centre of the eastern city of Jalalabad. Police said suicide bombers had attacked the airport there.

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High-profile attacks on Kabul

• 15 April 2012: Seven sites including parliament, Nato HQ and foreign embassies attacked
• 13 September 2011: Gunman seize unfinished high-rise to fire on Nato HQ and US embassy
• 19 August 2011: Gunman storm British Council HQ, killing 12 people

Abdulhadi, who works in Jalalabad, told the BBC: "The US air base was under attack. We heard loud explosions and had to take cover in a bunker."

Militants also took over a government building in Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province, police said, and a gun battle was under way.
In Gardez, capital of Paktia province, militants took over a building where university students were staying.
In the city of Kundoz, 15 suspected militants were arrested over an alleged plot to launch attacks, an official told BBC News.
Mirwais Yasini, an MP from the eastern province of Ningarhar, told BBC News: ''This shows the Taliban don't want peace.
"They don't want to negotiate. They are not serious. They want to continue the killing of innocent people. But these attacks also show a clear intelligence failure. Where was the intelligence to prevent co-ordinated attacks?''
There is normally a surge in the number of Taliban attacks at this time of year following a relative lull in winter, when militants find it more difficult to move around.

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