Taliban suicide bombers attack Kabul shopping mall

GARDEZ, Afghanistan — Taliban suicide bombers attacked a Kabul shopping mall near the Afghan Presidential Palace
on Monday, setting the building on fire and causing civilian and
security force casualties. There were also scattered small-arms attacks
on several government ministries, a Kabul police official said.

Three security personnel were killed as they
attempted to fend off the attackers in or near the six-story Froshgha
shopping mall, also known as the Grand Afghan Shopping Center. Two civilians also were killed. The Health Ministry said at least 71 people were wounded in the attacks, including three dozen security officials.

Two of the dead were Kabul police officers, police said, and one was a member of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency.

A top official of the Kabul
police department said that seven suicide bombers had carried out the
attack. Security forces shot five, but the remaining two were able to
detonate their explosives, said Gen. Abdul Ghafar Sayed Zada, the head of the criminal investigative division.

In a scene shown on live television, all the mall’s
windows were blown out and smoke was pouring forth. Afghan army snipers
took up positions on the roof of a nearby building.

The Taliban claimed credit for the attacks.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a statement on the Web site Alemarah, said 20 of its fighters had entered Kabul from different directions and had attacked the presidential palace, the Ministries of Mines and Industry and Justice and the Government Management Department, as well as the Kabul Serena hotel and the Central Bank.

Not all these attacks took place, however. An official with the Kabul police said there were no attacks on the presidential palace or the Serena Hotel, which was the scene of a massive Taliban assault in January 2008.
Another police official said the only place attacked was the Froshgha
bazaar. Both police officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity
because they weren’t authorized to talk to journalists

The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force
said in a statement that Afghan police had secured all the roads in the
vicinity of the fighting, and that they’d killed at least two armed
insurgents in the building.

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