U.S. in peace talks with Taliban, Karzai says

Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed Saturday for the first time that the Afghan and U.S. governments have begun peace discussions with Taliban insurgents, saying that the talks “have started already” and are “going well,” according to news accounts. He said foreign military forces, “especially the United States,” are “going ahead with these negotiations.”

At the same time, however, Karzai blasted the international governments and forces that have been assisting and defending his government over the past decade.

“The nations of the world which are here in our country are here for their own national interests,” he said, according to the official transcript of his speech to a youth conference at his presidential palace. “They are using our country.”

Karzai’s comments came as three suicide attackers in Afghan army uniforms attacked a nearby police facility in a bustling market district, igniting a three-hour gun battle that killed all three assailants, two policemen and four civilians. A Taliban spokesman quickly asserted the group’s responsibility.

News accounts of the president’s remarks varied, and the official palace version did not include any mention of peace talks. One news agency quoted him as saying talks had gone on “in the course of this year” and that various Taliban emissaries had met with members of the peace council he set up last year to negotiate.

A government spokesman, Hakim Ashur, quoted Karzai as telling the group: “We would like our disgruntled Taliban brothers to come and accept the Afghan constitution, the gains of the past 10 years, democracy and the right of free press and women. Americans support this process and are also involved in the peace process.”

No details were cited on the American role, and U.S. Embassy officials declined to comment. The Washington Post reported last month that administration officials had held several preliminary meetings this spring, in Germany and Qatar, with senior Taliban officials they believed to be close to Afghan Taliban leader Mohammad Omar. Karzai’s comments were the first public confirmation by the Afghan government of what he called “substantial” meetings.

In his comments critical of the international presence in Afghanistan, the president complained that NATO weapons pollute the environment and that foreign aid to Afghanistan amounts to far less than what the foreign forces take away. He also criticized Western forces for killing innocent people in Libya.

“It is just for their national interest that they put our lives under their feet and dishonor the people,” he said.

Karzai has voiced increasing antagonism toward U.S. and NATO forces here, blaming them repeatedly for civilian casualties and suggesting that they are becoming an occupying force. Yet Afghan officials have also expressed concern about Afghan security and stability once U.S. forces begin a withdrawal planned for between now and 2014.

Saturday’s suicide attack on a police station in a crowded area of the capital served as another reminder of the Taliban’s apparent determination to continue spreading terror, even as its leaders entertain initial discussions of peace.

Police officials and witnesses said that just after noon, they saw three young men running through a market toward the police facility. One was shot dead at the entrance gate, and the other two forced their way inside and opened fire. One was shot and killed and the second later blew himself up.

It was the first terrorist assault in downtown Kabul since April 18, when a suicide bomber in army dress penetrated the Ministry of Defense headquarters, killing two soldiers before being shot dead. But Taliban fighters have kept up a drumbeat of attacks across the country, as well as targeting a number of officials in northern Afghanistan for assassination.

“I saw three boys run toward the police station wearing army uniforms. One ran past and the others shouted, ‘Come back, this is the place,’ ” said Omid Ziai, 18, a shopkeeper selling sheets and towels on the next block. “One of them was shot right away, but the others went inside, and there was furious fire for a long time.”

Deputy city police chief Daoud Amin said the attackers who entered the police facility killed two officers and four civilians who were visiting the office. None of the civilians was immediately identified, but another police official said at least one may have been a foreigner.

Other witnesses, including a guard at a nearby bank, described hearing or seeing a rocket land in the immediate area just before the attack, causing a huge explosion and setting numerous shops on fire. The area, one of the busiest shopping centers in the capital, was quickly deserted, with abandoned merchandise scattered across the sidewalks.

The body of one attacker lay outside the police building for several hours amid the noise of the gun battle and the chaos of police and emergency vehicles. A second was brought out later, and both were put in ambulances. Both appeared to be men in their late teens or early 20s and were wearing camouflage uniforms over Muslim robes. 

Rare suicide attack in Pakistani capital kills 1

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a busy market in the Pakistani capital on Monday, killing at least one person in the first bombing in Islamabad in a year and a half, police said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the Pakistani Taliban have pledged to carry out attacks in retaliation for the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month in an army town not far from Islamabad.

The suicide bomber tried to enter a bank in the market but was stopped by a security guard, said Islamabad police chief Wajid Durrani. The bomber then detonated his explosives, killing the guard and wounding four others, Durrani said.

The blast ripped through the ground floor of the bank, scattering body parts and pieces of broken glass on the pavement outside. Police worked to keep people from gathering at the scene for fear that there might be a second blast.

Mohammad Shafi, a 45-year-old employee of a nearby marriage hall, said he was on his way to work when he heard a loud explosion. The blast knocked him over, and he quickly jumped up and ran to some bushes for safety.

"There was smoke everywhere," said Shafi.

Ehsan Masih, a 36-year-old security guard at a nearby office, said the blast rattled the windows and doors of his building. "Broken glass hit me and several others," he said.

The last bombing in Islamabad was in December 2009, when a suicide bomber set off explosives hidden under his jacket outside the entrance of Pakistan's navy headquarters, killing one security guard and wounding 11 other people.

But there have been two high-profile assassinations in Islamabad in the past six months. Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, was shot by his bodyguard outside a cafe in January. Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's federal minister for religious minorities, was gunned down outside his house in March.

Authorities have set up multiple police checkpoints throughout Islamabad in an attempt to prevent attacks. Analysts have said army operations targeting militant sanctuaries in the northwest have also helped reduce attacks in Islamabad by disrupting the Taliban operations. But other cities throughout Pakistan have suffered frequent attacks in recent years.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in a commercial and residential area of the northwestern city of Peshawar around midnight on Saturday, killing 34 people and wounding more than 100 others. Many of the people killed and wounded were police and rescue workers who rushed to the scene in response to a smaller blast minutes earlier.

Also Monday, a roadside bomb struck a military convoy in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border, killing three soldiers and wounding four others, said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

South Waziristan was the main sanctuary for the Pakistani Taliban before the military launched a large ground offensive in October 2009. But attacks against security forces have continued in the area.