Afghan president flees as gunmen open fire on ceremony

Taliban militants attacked a ceremony attended by the Afghan president today, unleashing automatic weapons and rocket fire that sent foreign dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover.

One person was killed and nine others were wounded.

President Hamid Karzai, Cabinet ministers and ambassadors escaped unharmed from the assault on the pageant marking the 16th anniversary of the end Soviet-backed rule in Afghanistan.

Two lawmakers seated about 30 yards from Karzai were among those hurt.

Karzai appeared later on national television saying several suspects had been arrested. He blamed the attack on the “enemy of Afghanistan” and appealed for calm. About 100 people were rounded up for questioning, an Afghan intelligence official said.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had deployed four militants with suicide vests and guns to target the president. There was no report of a suicide attack.

Hundreds of people fled in chaos as shots rang out. Firing appeared to come from ruined houses a few hundred yards from where the VIPs were seated. A live TV broadcast of the ceremony was quickly cut.

Western officials said Karzai had swiftly returned to the presidential palace. A U.S. Embassy official confirmed U.S. Ambassador William Wood escaped unharmed. Other foreign dignitaries and Cabinet ministers were also safe, Afghan and Western officials said.

“President Karzai condemns this act and asks for all the people to remain calm,” a statement from the presidential palace said.

Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since soon after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in 2001, has been targeted by assassins before and is constantly shadowed by a phalanx of bodyguards.

The attack came despite unprecedented tight security for today’s celebrations.

For days Kabul was ringed by checkpoints with security forces and plainclothes intelligence officials searching vehicles. The area where the ceremonies took place had been blocked by troops, tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

The live TV coverage of the assassination attempt will add to the sense of insecurity in the Afghan capital, which has been spared the worst of the violence as fighting has escalated between Taliban insurgents and Nato and US-led forces – leaving thousands dead last year.

It was the first militant attack in the city since mid-March.

The gunfire erupted as the national anthem was ending and dignitaries at the event – closed to the general public – were about to take their seats.

Sirajudin, a police officer at the scene, said he saw two people firing AK-47 assault rifles from a house opposite where Karzai was sitting. UN spokesman Aleem Siddique cited a UN diplomat at the scene as saying between three and five people opened up with small-arms fire toward the dignitaries.

In footage shown live on Afghan TV, two lawmakers who were sitting about 100ft from Karzai were seen to be hit by the gunfire. One of the men slumped back in his seat, while the other lay on the ground.

People at the ceremony ducked for cover then fled – among them Afghan police and soldiers who were assembled for the pageantry. Karzai had just completed a drive-past in a US-supplied Humvee jeep.

Security forces deployed elsewhere opened fire at the houses where the attackers appeared to be.

Military hospital official Ahmad Zia Aftali said a local Shiite Muslim leader was killed by a gunshot to his heart and nine others, including two lawmakers, were wounded. The lawmakers were undergoing surgery, he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said four insurgents launched the attack against Karzai near the national stadium where the event was held.

Mujaheed said the insurgents were wearing suicide vests and carrying AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades to attack Karzai. He said BM-12 missiles – a crude rocket launched from a small platform – were used in the attack.

Mohammad Saleh Saljoqi, a lawmaker at the ceremony, said two rockets – he described them as rocket-propelled grenades – landed near the dignitaries, and that there was continuous AK-47 fire.

One rocket hit inside the Eid Gah mosque opposite where Karzai was sitting. The second hit when the president had already left, landing about 164 feet away, Saljoqi said.

The Afghan intelligence official said authorities had rounded up for questioning about 100 people from the area where the gunfire originated.

Karzai has escaped several assassination attempts. His narrowest escape since he became president came in September 2002 when a gunman opened fire at close quarters as he visited the southern city of Kandahar. Three people, including the gunman, died in that attack.