Karzai escapes assassination plot

Last Modified: 27 Apr 2008
By: Nick Paton Walsh

Afghanistan's President Karzai escapes an assassination attempt during a military procession in Kabul. Nick Paton Walsh reports.

The attack involved several suspected Taliban fighters firing mortars and bullets at a spectator stand where Hamid Karzai and other dignitaries were standing.

His detractors call him the mayor of Kabul - a president of a country so lawless that he rules over the capital alone.

But today Hamid Karzai put on a show of independence and control ahead of next year's presidential elections. There was a parade to mark Mujahaddin day, commemorating the removal 16 years ago of the last government here backed by a foreign military - that of the Soviets.

Yet the day belonged to today's insurgents, who proved even the centre of Kabul is a dangerous place to be.

Two mortar rounds caused bewilderment, then fear, among MPs. Then gunmen a few hundred metres away opened fire, and the panic set in. Afghan state TV cut off its live coverage.

The attack shows what four Taliban suicide bombers can achieve. It caused the president, the Nato commander and US and UK ambassadors, to flee the scene.

The key message of today's attack is that the Taliban are increasingly able to infiltrate even the inner sanctuary of the Afghan capital.

Three gunmen and two civilians are dead, and 11 people wounded, in what would have been just one of many attempts to kill President Karzai - were it not the first to happen inside the capital.

Just over an hour later Mr Karzai emerged on state TV to try and establish he was in control again.

The key message of today's attack is that however much President Karzai chides Nato for its clumsy military tactics, and however much the west accuses him of allowing corruption, the Taliban are increasingly able to infiltrate even the inner sanctuary of the capital.

Many warn of the Baghdadification of Kabul - that westerners will soon live behind concrete walls as the Taliban find growing sympathy among a population for whom change has not come fast enough.