Massive bombs rock downtown Kabul

Dexter Filkins reports on today’s devastating Taliban attack in central Kabul:

A team of militants launched a spectacular assault at the heart of the Afghan government Monday, with two men detonating suicide bombs and the rest fighting to the death only 50 yards from the gates of the presidential palace.

…The battle unfolded in the middle of Pashtunistan Square, a traffic circle that holds the palace of President Hamid Karzai, the Ministry of Justice and the Central Bank, the target of the attack…

With the battle raging, a shock wave rippled from another part of town – a suicide car bomber. His van, complete with a siren and light, was marked “Maiwand Hospital” on its sides and front, so the police let it through. It exploded in Malik Asghar Square, blasting a crater in the street and shaking the ground for a mile.

According to Filkins, the attack was spectacularly successful:

The effect of the attack seemed primarily psychological, designed to strike fear into the usually quiet precincts of downtown Kabul – and to drive home the ease with which insurgents could strike the American-backed government here.

In that way the assault succeeded without question: The streets of Kabul emptied, merchants shuttered their shops and Afghans ran from their offices. Even guards assigned to Mr. Karzai himself came to join the fighting; it was that close.

A representative of the Taliban told Filkins:

…the attack was intended to answer American and Afghan proposals to “reconcile” with and “reintegrate” Taliban fighters into mainstream society. The plan is a central part of the American-backed campaign to turn the tide of the war, and will be showcased later this month at an international conference in London.

“We are ready to fight, and we have the strength to fight, and nobody from the Taliban side is ready to make any kind of deal,” Mr. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said. “The world community and the international forces are trying to buy the Taliban, and that is why we are showing that we are not for sale.”

There really isn’t much to say here, except the obvious. If the Taliban can strike at will in downtown Kabul right in front of main government buildings, I think there is very little question about which side is winning.