Multiple attacks rock Kabul,Taliban claim spring offensive

While the total damage and death toll from the attacks was still being determined,the Interior Ministry said 17 militants died in the attacks. One police officer was killed and 17 policemen were wounded. Fourteen civilians were also injured in the attacks,said the ministry.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility,saying it was the beginning of their spring offensive. In an e-mailed statement,Mujahid said the attacks were targeting NATO headquarters,the British and German embassies,the Afghan parliament building,the Serena and Kabul Star hotels,and sites along Darulaman road,where the Russian embassy is located. At the same time,Taliban fighters launched assaults on Afghan and NATO installations in the capital cities of Nangarhar,Logar and Paktia provinces,he said.

In all these attacks,tens of mujahideen fighters equipped with light and heavy weapons,suicide vests,RPGs,rockets,heavy machine guns and hand grenades are attacking their targets, Mujahid said.

He told AP in a phone call that the insurgent group had planned the assault for two months to show the extent of their power after being called weak by NATO forces. We are strong and we can attack anywhere we want, he said.

Mujahid said it had been easy to bring fighters into the capital,and they had had inside help to move heavy weapons into place. He did not elaborate.

The attacks in the capital began in the afternoon with bombings in the central neighborhood of Wazir Akbar Khan,where a NATO base and a number of embassies,including that of the US,are located. At least a dozen explosions rocked the capital,and heavy gunfire shook the city for two hours after the initial blast.

Witnesses said insurgents entered a multi-storey construction site overlooking the diplomatic triangle and behind a supermarket. There they unleashed rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire,protected from the view of security forces by green protective netting wrapped around the skeleton of the building.

A rocket-propelled grenade landed just outside the front gate of a house used by British diplomats in the city centre,a witness said. Two rockets hit a British embassy guard tower near the Reuters office in the city.

Three other rockets hit the supermarket near the German embassy popular with foreigners. Shooting came from various directions in an area close to both the US and British embassies,while smoke billowed from the nearby German embassy,the witnesses said.

Heavy fighting erupted again more than five hours after the Taliban first struck,as dusk was falling over the capital.

The American embassy said there were attacks in the vicinity of the US embassy. The German Foreign Ministry said there was some damage to the grounds of the German embassy,but it did not appear that anyone had been hurt.

Britains Foreign Office could not provide details of the attack. We can confirm that there is an ongoing incident in the diplomatic area of Kabul, a spokeswoman said. We are in close contact with embassy staff.

Across town,residents reported a blast near parliament as militants took over a nearby building and opened fire. Mohammad Nahim Lalai Hamidzai,a lawmaker from Kandahar,said he opened fired from parliament on a nearby building under construction where militants were hiding.

I shot up to 400 or 500 bullets from my Kalashnikov at the attackers, Hamidzai said. They fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the parliament. The fight was around the parliament,the Russian embassy and Vice President Mohammed Karim Khalilis house.

Militants also launched mortars at international military bases on Jalalabad road on Kabuls outskirts. A joint Greek-Turkish base came under heavy fire. A police officer said a suicide bomber had occupied a building near the bases and was shooting toward the Kabul Military Training Centre.

Taliban fighters also launched simultaneous assaults in the capital cities of Logar,Paktia and Nangarhar provinces.

In Nangarhar,four militants some wearing burqas to disguise themselves as women entered a coalition base at about 2 pm. The base,near the provincial capital of Jalalabad,is home to the so-called Provincial Reconstruction Team,a joint civilian and military group that works on development and governance issues. The government said all four militants were gunned down.

At the same time,four other attackers travelling in a vehicle loaded with explosives were seen heading for an airport near Jalalabad. Afghan security forces were chasing a suspicious four-wheel-drive vehicle en route to the airport, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai,a spokesman for Nangarhar province. Before they reached the airport,the vehicle exploded.

Three militants were killed in the blast. Police arrested the fourth insurgent,who was injured,the ministry said. In the wreckage,police found two rocket-propelled grenades,one heavy machine gun,three AK-47s,nine hand grenades and a pistol.

In Pul-e-Alam in Logar province,police chief Ghulam Shakhi said militants had entered a building that belongs to the education department,which is near a building used by the Afghan intelligence service,and a gunbattle was under way.

In Paktia,a group of militants some wearing women8217;s clothes entered a building near a police training centre in Gardez. The ministry said the militants started firing in different directions. Five civilians and three policemen were wounded. Three attackers were killed.

The assaults appeared to repeat the tactics of an attack last September when insurgents entered construction sites to use them as positions for rocket and gun attacks. That attack was blamed on the Haqqani network.

US ambassador Ryan Crocker said it was unlikely the Afghan Taliban had the capacity to launch Sundays attacks on its own,and speculated that the Haqqani network were involved. Sediq Sediqi,a spokesman for the Interior Ministry,told Reuters initial findings showed that the Haqqanis were involved in todays attacks.

The attacks in Kabul come a month before a NATO summit at which the US and its allies are supposed to put finishing touches on the plans for transition to Afghan security control,and days before a meeting of defence and foreign ministers in Brussels to prepare for the Chicago summit.