DUSHANBE, June 22, 2015, Asia-Plus – International media outlets report that Taliban militants launched a suicide bombing and gunfire attack outside the Afghan parliament on June 22.
Reuters
reports a Taliban suicide bomber and six gunmen attacked the Afghan parliament on Monday as lawmakers met to consider a new defense minister, and another district in the volatile north fell to the militants as they intensified a summer offensive.
The brazen assault on the symbolic center of power along with territorial gains elsewhere, reportedly highlight how NATO-trained Afghan security forces are struggling to cope with worsening militant violence.
Fighting has spiraled since the departure of most foreign forces from Afghanistan at the end of last year. The insurgents are pushing to take territory more than 13 years after U.S.-led military intervention toppled them from power.
Monday”s attack, in which at least 19 people were wounded, began as lawmakers met with the new acting defense minister, Masoom Stanikzai, the third candidate so far for the key security post whose appointment must be confirmed by parliament.
A Taliban fighter detonated a car loaded with explosives outside parliament gates, Ebadullah Karimi, spokesman for Kabul police, was quoted as saying by
Reuters
.
Six gunmen took up positions in a building near parliament, he said, but never breached the compound”s gates. Security forces killed the six after a gun battle lasting nearly two hours.
Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said all lawmakers were safe. TV pictures showed the speaker sitting calmly and legislators leaving the building, engulfed in dust and smoke, without panicking.
Four women were reportedly among the 19 people wounded.
Meanwhile,
CNN
quoted Dr. Kabir Amiri, head of Kabul Central Hospital, as saying that at least 31 civilians were wounded in the attack, including three children.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said on his Twitter account that the militant group chose to target the parliament on the day the defense minister was to be introduced to lawmakers.
Stanikzai, the defense minister nominee, is the former chief executive of the Joint Secretariat of the Afghanistan High Peace Council, an organization tasked with pursuing peace talks with the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country,
CNN
said.
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan condemned the attack, calling it “a clear and deliberate affront to democracy in Afghanistan.”
