Gunmen, Afghan security clash
Security forces traded gun and rocket fire with unknown assailants holed up in a Kabul house on Wednesday, officials said. A spokesman for the intelligence service, Saeed Ansari, said the troops wanted to capture the suspects alive, but gave no details on who was targeted. Zemerai Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman, described the suspects as "terrorists." An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the sides were trading rocket-propelled grenade and automatic gunfire. The gunmen appeared to be holed up inside a house, in a densely populated area in western Kabul near a popular park, Babur's Garden. The clash followed an assassination attempt by suspected Taliban militants on President Hamid Karzai during a military parade Sunday. Karzai survived unharmed, but three people, including a lawmaker, were killed. Three assailants also died. The chief of the intelligence service, Amrullah Saleh, acknowledged Monday that his agency knew about the plot to kill the president but failed to locate the assailants in time. |
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