Once again, the Taliban show just how vulnerable Kabul still is...the Afghan capital has seen several of these types of attacks in just the past couple of months.
Today's attack, reported from The Long War Journal, hit a police station and the dead from the attack include three policemen, one intelligence officer and five civilians.
Taliban suicide assault team strikes in Afghan capital
The Taliban claimed credit for a suicide assault on a police station in the Afghan capital of Kabul today.
A heavily armed three-man-strong suicide assault team dressed in military uniforms attacked a police station in the 1st district in Kabul, near the Finance Ministry, killing nine people. The attack began as a suicide bomber detonated his vest at a barrier outside the police station in an attempt to breach the security cordon. The two other attackers entered the compound and opened fire. They were engaged by Afghan police, who shot and killed the fighters during a gunfight.
Three policemen, an intelligence official, and five civilians were killed during the heavy fighting, according to Pajwhok Afghan News.
In a statement released on its propaganda website, Voice of Jihad, the Taliban claimed the attack and said the three suicide bombers were from Khost and Paktika, two areas under the influence of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network.
"The three martyrdom-seeking Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are Hafiz Ibrahim the resident of Khost, Hafiz Muhammad Amin and Hafiz Muhammad Harees the residents of Paktika province," the Taliban statement read.
The Taliban asserted that "dozens of the enemy soldiers have been killed or wounded," but the group grossly exaggerates the casualties as a result of their operations on a daily basis. The Taliban claim scores of Coalition and Afghan troops are killed and dozens of "tanks" are destroyed each day.
The attack was likely executed by the Kabul Attack Network, which is tasked with hitting the Afghan government and Coalition forces in and around the capital. The network is made up of members from the Haqqani Network, Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and al Qaeda. A Haqqani Network commander known as Daud, or Dawood, co-leads the Kabul Attack Network along with a Taliban commander known as Taj Mir Jawad. The Kabul Attack Network was formed with the help of Siraj Haqqani, the operational leader of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network.
Today's attack is the first in Kabul since May 21, when a suicide bomber detonated his vest at a hospital that is used to treat Afghan soldiers. Six people were killed in the blast.
Prior to the May 21, the last major attack in Kabul took place on April 2, when a suicide assault team attempted to storm Camp Phoenix, a NATO base. The suicide bombers were defeated by US troops guarding the perimeter.
Also today in Afghanistan, the Taliban launched a series of attacks against ISAF's supply lines in the southeast and the west. The Taliban killed five security guards in Nimroz province and four more in Ghanzi province. Fifteen trucks transporting fuel to ISAF forces were destroyed in the attack. Also in Ghazni province, insurgents who are thought to be "Taliban who came from Pakistan" attacked 26 villages today. And eight Pakistani Taliban fighters were reported to have been killed during fighting in Ghanzi yesterday.
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