Series of Blasts, Rocket Fire Rock Kabul as Taliban Targets Diplomatic Area ('Spring Offensive')

[Hissyspit]

Last edited Sun Apr 15, 2012, 07:37 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: RT, The Guardian

Series of blasts, rocket fire rock Kabul as Taliban targets diplomatic area

Published: 15 April, 2012, 14:04

At least a dozen large explosions, followed by rocket fire and automatic gunfire, struck Kabul on Sunday in what appears to be a coordinated attack on the diplomatic area and the NATO base. The Taliban says it's behind the attacks.

- snip -

Several attackers have entered the Afghan parliament in Kabul, a local official says. Residents across the city also reported explosions near the parliament building.

A witness says a rocket-propelled grenade also hit the residence of the British ambassador in Kabul.

Suicide bombers are said to have taken over a Kabul hotel known to be used by foreigners, launching rocket and rifle fire.

[div class="excerpt"]Reuters Top News ‏ @Reuters
Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says attacks are the beginning of insurgent spring offensive #Kabul

Read more: http://rt.com/news/kabul-explosions-diplomatic-area-089/

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[div class="excerpt"]@RT_com
Taliban claim responsibility for the assault on NATO base, parliament and number of diplomatic residences in Kabul http://on.rt.com/h5x5pe


Explosions and gunfire rock Kabul

Rockets fired at parliament building in apparently co-ordinated assault on government and diplomatic areas

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 April 2012 06.15 EDT

A series of explosions followed by sustained gunfire have shaken the Afghan capital in what appeared to be a co-ordinated attack on two areas frequented by Afghan government officials and their international allies.

The first blasts struck the Wazir Akbar Khan area of central Kabul, home to a number of embassies and a Nato base. Gunfire broke out soon after, forcing people into the street to take cover. Smoke could be seen rising from a few buildings as sirens wailed.

- snip -

Attackers also fired rockets at the parliament building, in the west of the city, and at the Russian embassy, a spokesman for the parliament said.

Militants who had staked out positions in a tall building were firing rockets in different directions, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. It was not immediately clear what they were targeting.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Discouraging

[Cooley Hurd]

2. clusterfuck...

[Bigmack]

16. Complete with the Goat Option! nt

[Hissyspit]

3. Update on #Kabul attack: reports suggest three buildings across the #Afghan capital taken over

AJELive ‏ @AJELive Close
Update on #Kabul attack: reports suggest three buildings across the #Afghan capital taken over by assailants |

[madrchsod]

4. we went into Afghanistan to capture bin laden and his fellow travelers...

but they were not there...bin was in pakistan and the rest were in yemen. so we ended up fighting the people who were trained by our cia in the 80`s to defeat the soviet union and free afghanistan.

interesting how things are working out for the usa and the afghan people

[noel711]

5. Thank you, Hissy, for posting!

I got an early morning tweet on this chaos,
but nothing.. I repeat nothing from mainstream media,
nor nothing even on the tee vee.

Everybody in USA sleeping late on Sunday a.m.,
and thus anything else occurring in world is
just not that important...

Thats why the world resents USA-
it's all about us, and anything or everyone else..
why bother?

But thanks HIssy... I was looking for this!

[KG]

6. light at the end of the tunnel...

[2012parts]

7. Spam deleted by William769 (MIR Team)

[sulphurdunn]

8. Here we are again,

fighting a costly, unnecessary war of attrition, against a premodern agrarian society that we are losing and that benefits no one but war profiteers. The only thing that has changed is the studied indifference of our "representative" government toward the peoples demand to end it. Even during the latter stages of Vietnam, the power elites continued to defend it. Now they don't even bother.

[IcyPeas]

9. taliban have broken into a prison freeing 400 prisoners:

Taliban militants armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades have battled their way into a prison in northwest Pakistan, freeing close to 400 prisoners, including at least 20 described by police as "very dangerous" insurgents, authorities and the militants say.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/taliban-frees-400-in-prison-attack-20120416-1x22f.html

[bvar22]

10. Golly Gee, who could have predicted....

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda......

Get The FUCK OUT.
NOW!
TODAY!

[azurnoir]

11. so would someone please give a lucid explanation

of why the f*ck we're still in Afghanistan?

[steve2470]

18. military industrial complex profits is a good starting point, imho nt

[independentpiney]

12. Imagine living in a place where the Spring offensive has been an annual event for generations

What's it been now, 3-4 consecutive generations?

Happy Spring Offensive! I wonder if they have picnics to mark the start

[Odin2005]

13. 3 or 4? more like 1000s of years.

The Pashtun people are much like what the original Proto-Indo-European people were like: violent, warlike, patriarchal, and based on raising livestock.

[independentpiney]

14. I thought there were a few breaks in the wars in the late 19th- early 20th centuries

but I could be wrong.

[Odin2005]

15. Yeah, but the general state of these folks is tribal raiding.

It differs very little from what Alexander the Great ran into up there.

[steve2470]

17. Heavy fighting continues on Kabul streets

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/us-afghanistan-attack-idUSBRE83E05620120416

(Reuters) - Loud explosions and intense gunfire erupted at dawn in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday after heavy fighting overnight between security forces and militants holed up in the central diplomatic area.

NATO helicopters launched strafing attack runs on gunmen hidden in a construction site overlooking the NATO headquarters and several embassies, including the British and German missions.

Insurgents fired automatic weapons at Afghan army special forces and police, who responded with rocket-propelled grenades during street fighting in the capital that has so far lasted almost 16 hours.

Explosive flashes lit alleys and surrounding streets.