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Taliban militants targeted the presidential palace and national CIA office in central Kabul on Tuesday morning, with gunfire and explosions erupting at one of the gates of the complex in the Afghan capital.
Blasts and gunshots shook the city for an hour after the first explosions at about 6.30 am, sending smoke into the air in a high-security area of Kabul that also contains many embassies and official buildings.
Police said that three or four attackers had approached one entrance to the sprawling palace area and had fled their explosives-laden car before detonating it.
Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told reporters at the scene that all the militants had died and no security forces personnel or civilians were killed, giving no further details.

A palace source told AFP that the expansive grounds around the building had not been breached.
President Hamid Karzai, who lives in the palace, was due to hold a press event on Tuesday morning and journalists had been asked to report to the building.
All roads to the palace are permanently closed off, with several rings of heavy security around the complex keeping people far away.
“A big group of attackers have struck against the CIA office as the main target and also the palace and the defence ministry nearby,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
The US embassy sounded its “duck and cover” alarm drill and the US-led NATO military coalition said on its Twitter account: “Small arms fire and multiple explosions reported in Kabul.”
The last major attack in Kabul was on June 11 when the Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb outside the Supreme Court that killed at least 15 civilians.
Tuesday’s attack came during a visit to Kabul by US envoy James Dobbins after a diplomatic bust-up over the Taliban’s new office in Qatar that was intended as a first step towards a peace deal to end 12 years of fighting in Afghanistan.
The Qatar office used the formal name of “Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan” from the rebels’ 1996-2001 government, and flew the white Taliban flag that is seen by many Afghans as a grim reminder of the cruelties of Taliban rule.
President Hamid Karzai, furious over the flag and sign, broke off ongoing Afghan-US talks on an agreement that would allow Washington to maintain soldiers in Afghanistan after the NATO combat mission ends.
Karzai has so far declined to send representatives to Qatar, but pressure is growing for a ceasefire and eventually a peace settlement ahead of next year’s NATO withdrawal and Afghan presidential elections due to April.
About 100,000 foreign combat troops, 68,000 of them from the US, are due to withdraw, and NATO formally transferred responsibility for nationwide security to Afghan forces a week ago.
When in power, the Taliban imposed a harsh version of Islamic law that banned television, music and cinema, stopped girls from going to school and forced woman to wear the all-covering burqa.
They were ousted in 2001 for sheltering the Al-Qaeda militants behind the 9/11 attacks, but launched a resilient and bloody insurgency against US-led NATO troops and the US-backed Afghan government.
Dobbins on Monday said Washington was “outraged” at how the Taliban opened an office in Qatar.


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Taliban

Taliban attack Kabul presidential palace and CIA office

Smoke billows from the scene of gunfight between Taliban militants and Afghan security officials near the Presidential palace in Kabul. Photo: EPA

President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul. Photo: AP

Taliban removes disputed flag at Qatar office, but talks still in doubt

A Taliban flag at their office in Doha, Qatar, last week. Photo: AP

Taliban guerillas welcome Qatar office but fight on

Muhammad Naeem a representative of the Taliban speaks at the official opening of their office in Doha, Qatar, Taliban fighters on Friday hailed the rebels’ new office in Qatar as evidence of their success on the front lines. Photo: AP

Afghan Taliban offers to free US soldier held captive since 2009

Afghan men on a motorcycle drive past Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers on guard outside Bagram military base, 50 kms north of Kabul. Photo: AFP

US-Taliban talks in Qatar not expected on Thursday

Afghan security forces in an operation against suspected Taliban militants in Surkh Rod district of Nangarhar province. Preliminary Afghan peace talks in Qatar between US and Taliban officials are now unlikely to take place on Thursday. Photo: EPA 

Afghan Taliban offer to free US soldier held captive for four years

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Asia

Taliban attack Kabul presidential palace and CIA office

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Afghan militants all died in attack

Afghan militants all died in attack