Government buildings attacked by Taliban militants

Taliban militants struck the heart of Kabul this morning in an attack that left at least five people dead.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the Associated Press that up to 20 Taliban fighters entered the heavily secure area in the capital to target several government buildings, including the presidential palace. The attack came on the same day that confirmed cabinet members were to be sworn in by President Karzai at the presidential palace.

After a suicide bomber targeted a building near the Foreign Ministry, a gunbattle raged for almost an hour in the capital.

"It's not surprising that the Taliban do this sort of thing,"AFP reported US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke as saying.

One American man who was locked down in the Central Bank for the duration of the fighting had tears in his eyes as he told me that, when all the other Afghan evacuated the bank, several Afghan employees of the bank refused to leave until the foreigners in the bank were also evacuated. "That, to me, is the real Afghan spirit," he said.

Foreign forces arrived on the scene several hours after the first attack. One Afghan friend asked me why foreign forces didn't arrive sooner to help out. The American man chimed in: "That area is so heavily populated with pedestrians. God forbid the American forces fired into the crowd and ended up accidentally killing an innocent Afghan woman or child, the repurcussions..."

In other, lighter news, the Khaleej Times reported that the "world's least known bird" has been found breeding in Afghanistan. A breeding ground for the large-billed reed warbler was discovered in the Wakhan Corridor in northeastern Afghanistan.

Read the Khaleej Times full article about the large-billed reed warbler here:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/January/international_January920.xml&section=international&col=