Afghan security forces put down an attack by Taliban fighters, including suicide bombers, in a volatile southeastern town Monday while the Parliament debated President Hamid Karzai's new Cabinet choices. The Taliban attack in the town of Gardez, 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Kabul, showed the Afghan insurgency had not abated despite a gradual resolution of a long political impasse following a fraud-tainted presidential poll in August. The militants, some wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, attacked a key police building in Gardez before they were surrounded in a market, a local official and residents said. “The fighting is over. All of the assailants have been killed,” Rohullah Samoon, a spokesman for the governor of Paktia province, said by telephone without indicating how many attackers there had been. Earlier he said at least three had been killed. A Taliban provincial commander said five of the group's fighters, equipped with suicide vests and heavy weapons, had launched the assault. Attacks in Afghanistan this year have spiralled to their highest levels since the Taliban were overthrown by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. The mounting violence has coincided with a long period of political uncertainty. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was confirmed last month as the winner of the Aug. 20 vote despite a UN-backed panel finding widespread fraud in his favor.
