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Monday, Apr 28, 2008
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Karzai escapes attempt on life

Taliban fighters fire guns and rockets at an official celebration in Kabul

Three killed and 10 wounded in the attack
Karzai can’t be safe from our attacks: Taliban

— Photos: AFP

Panic in Kabul: Afghan President Hamid Karzai stands atop a vehicle during a military parade in Kabul on Sunday, moments before extremists launched an attack. At right, soldiers run to take up positions after gunfire was heard.

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday survived an assasination attempt by Taliban militants who staged a daring attack with rockets and gunfire on the country's largest annual military parade, killing three people, including a lawmaker, and injuring a dozen.

Karzai as well as scores of ministers from his Cabinet and top foreign diplomats including the US ambassador escaped unhurt from the attack at the parade, organised to mark the 16th anniversary of the end Soviet-backed rule in Afghanistan, state run Bakhtar News Agency reported.

Security forces whisked Karzai and other dignitaries away as spectators scrambled for cover and security guards opened fire in every direction to retaliate the attack.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and said it had deployed six militants, with suicide vests and guns, to target the president. He said three of those militants died in the attack.

Three people were killed and 12 others injured in the attack, officials said.

Fifty-year-old Karzai has survived at least three previous assassination attempts but this was the first attempt on his life in the capital.

He appeared on television within an hour of the attack and told the country that everything was fine.

"The enemy of Afghanistan, the enemy of the security and development of Afghanistan, tried to disrupt the celebration and tried to create fear," he said.

"Fortunately, the Afghan security forces surrounded them and some of the suspects were arrested, and, thank God, now everything is all right and the people of Afghanistan should be calm and confident," he said.

Attack condemned

Reports from Kolkata:

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee condemned the attack on Afghan President Hamid Karzai and called upon the international community to show zero tolerance towards terrorism.

"I strongly condemn the dastardly attack on Hamid Karzai. We have been saying that there should be zero tolerance to terrorism," he told newsmen after a function by the central Kolkata district Congress here.-PTI

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