Taliban strike across Afghanistan in 'spring offensive'

Militants have been carrying out what they say are co-ordinated attacks on the Afghan capital Kabul and other targets in Afghanistan.

The "spring offensive" targeted foreign embassies, Nato's HQ and the Afghan parliament in the first major attack on Kabul in more than six months.

The attackers struck in multiple locations in Kabul and in the provinces of Logar, Paktia and Nangarhar.

At least 17 militants were killed and 26 people injured, officials report.

Those injured include 17 Afghan police officers and nine civilians, according to the Afghan interior ministry.

The last attack on Kabul on this scale was in September 2011 when heavily armed insurgents took over an unfinished high-rise building and opened fire on the US embassy and Nato headquarters. That attack left at least 14 Afghans dead.
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“Start Quote

Where was the intelligence to prevent co-ordinated attacks?”

End Quote Mirwais Yasini MP from province of Ningarhar

* In pictures: Afghanistan attacks

The Taliban said Sunday's attacks marked the start of a "spring offensive". Their "fighting season" tends to begin when the warmer weather melts snow in mountain passes along the border with Pakistan, allowing fighters to cross into Afghanistan.

Among Sunday's targets was the British embassy, with two rockets hitting a guard tower and a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a house used by British diplomats, but no staff were hurt, the Foreign Office later confirmed.
Smoke billowing

Between seven and 10 explosions have been heard in Kabul since the attacks began around 13:15 local time (08:45 GMT) and fighting was continuing at least eight hours later.

Insurgents focused their assault on Western embassies in the central diplomatic area and the parliament area but also attacked international troops in the east of the city.

The Taliban listed as targets the German and British embassies, the Kabul Star hotel, the headquarters of the Nato-led international force (Isaf), and parliament house.

The list also included the ruined Darul Aman palace outside the capital.
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Analysis
image of Bilal Sarwary Bilal Sarwary Kabul

The Taliban have said they are behind the attacks. Last week they warned that a new offensive would start soon. The last major attack in Kabul was last September when insurgents attacked.

This is a large-scale attack, right in the heart of Kabul. Many questions remain unanswered. How did a large group of heavily armed insurgents, with a huge amount of weapons, manage to get inside Kabul and inside the central district of Wazir Akbar Khan?

In their defence, Afghan intelligence officials say they did have prior intelligence about attacks on several locations in Kabul, which helped prevent bloodshed.

But today's attacks have shattered the confidence of Afghans once more. The insurgents have once more shown that they can strike right in the heart of Kabul.

At the parliament, a number of MPs joined the fight against the insurgents, shooting at them as they tried to storm parliament, Kandahar lawmaker Naeem Hameedzai Lalai told reporters.

"I'm the representative of my people and I have to defend them," he said.

Large explosions rattled the diplomatic quarter where a Reuters correspondent spoke of black smoke rising from embassies as rocket-propelled grenades whizzed overhead.

Residents could be seen running for cover as sirens wailed. Some insurgents reportedly took up firing positions in a building under construction.

Some damage was reported to the embassies of Germany and Japan but Russia denied reports that its mission had been hit "despite the close proximity of the fighting".

In eastern Kabul, in the Camp Warehouse area, a convoy of French troops returned fire after coming under attack.

Greek and Turkish troops manning a nearby base also came under heavy attack and responded with machine-guns, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Afghan security forces captured two suicide bombers alive before they were able to reach their intended targets, according to Isaf.

Isaf said Afghan forces had taken the lead in repelling the attacks, which it dismissed as "largely ineffective".

However, images from Kabul and the provinces appeared to show Isaf and US troops and aircraft in the area of fighting.

Late on Sunday, Kabul's police chief, Gen Ayub Salangi, told BBC News that fighting in the Camp Warehouse area had ended, but there was continuing violence both in the diplomatic quarter and close to parliament.
Provinces targeted

Eleven police officers and five civilians were wounded in Kabul while four insurgents were killed, police say.

Suicide bombers attacked a US air base near the eastern city of Jalalabad.
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High-profile attacks on Kabul

* 15 April 2012: Seven sites including parliament, Nato HQ and foreign embassies attacked
* 13 September 2011: Gunman seize unfinished high-rise to fire on Nato HQ and US embassy
* 19 August 2011: Gunman storm British Council HQ, killing 12 people

Four civilians were wounded and three insurgents killed in the city, police said.

According to officials

* In Logar, three police officers were wounded and three insurgents killed and one arrested

* In Paktia, three police officers and five civilians were wounded and three insurgents killed after insurgents took over a building used by students in the provincial capital, Gardez

* In the eastern province of Nangarhar, four suicide attackers wearing burqas and women's clothes were shot dead while making an attack
* In the northern city of Kundoz, 15 suspected militants were arrested over an alleged plot to launch attacks


Mirwais Yasini, an MP from Nangarhar, told BBC News: ''This shows the Taliban don't want peace.

"They don't want to negotiate. They are not serious. They want to continue the killing of innocent people."

The MP said it was clear an intelligence failure had occurred.