Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
16 April, 2012.
Afghan intelligence officials say security forces have repelled a wave of militant attacks in the capital and elsewhere.
Government forces told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that they are now in control of the Shirpoor and Darulaman districts in Kabul, the last areas where fighting following the coordinated attacks that began on April 15 was continuing.
The attacks in Kabul mostly targeted government institutions and Western diplomatic and military facilities, while the attacks in the provinces appeared aimed at Afghan security forces and infrastructure…
Fighting had continued into the night in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, the heavily guarded diplomatic area that hosts Western embassies, the Afghan presidential palace, and NATO headquarters and UN offices.
Areas near the Afghan parliament as well as the wealthy Sher Pur neighborhood were also targeted.
Outside the capital, Luftullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security, the country’s intelligence agency, said fighting had ended in the eastern cities of Gardez and Jalalabad, while pockets of insurgents were still active in Pol-e Alam…
Fighting was also drawn out in Pol-e Alam, the capital of Logar Province, south of Kabul, where militants overran a building occupied by a provincial reconstruction team that included foreign workers. Sources said three suicide attackers there had been killed and at least nine members of the Afghan security forces were injured in heavy fighting.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks, saying they were working with allied fighters…
Afghan officials say an upturn in violence at this time of the year is part of the Taliban’s annual spring offensive, following a relative calm period in winter, when militants find it more difficult to travel and operate.
But even they have been surprised at the scale of these attacks, they said.
