Follow live updates on the ongoing situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has claimed responsibility for a series of coordinated attacks in Kabul and other Afghan provinces.
16.57 ISAF pres release states Taliban attacks were “largely ineffective”:
Afghan National Security Forces responded to a series of attacks today in Kabul and in a few outlying provinces. The attacks, which were concentrated in three clusters around the city, were labeled by the Taliban as the start of the so-called “Spring Offensive,” and were largely ineffective.
ISAF quick reaction forces were prepared to respond if required but were not needed.
16.29 Hamid Karzai was discussing the budget with a group of MPs when explosions and gunfire rocked three locations in the capital, including an upmarket diplomatic enclave close to his fortified palace, one of his aides said.
All his afternoon meetings, including one with a delegation of an insurgent group in Kabul for peace talks, were cancelled, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Additional bodyguards were deployed in the presidential palace and a meeting with a delegation of Hezb-i-Islami, an insurgent group led by former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, now holding peace talks with Karzai was cancelled, the aide said.
Stateless state of affairs in Pakistan,
If the Government is busy in confabulating with Terrorists, this is the price it has to pay.
Nearly 400 prisoners escaped from a jail in northwest Pakistan early on Sunday after it was attacked by Islamist militants armed with guns and rocket propelled grenades, a senior police official said.
Some who fled the jail in the town of Bannu, near unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal areas close to the Afghan border, were militants, an intelligence official said.
One inmate who escaped was on death row for involvement in an attempt to assassinate former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a second police official said.
Pakistan’s al Qaeda-linked Taliban movement, which has close links to al Qaeda, said its fighters mounted the assault, which triggered clashes. Several people were wounded.
“We have freed hundreds of our comrades in Bannu in this attack. Several of our people have reached their destinations, others are on their way,” a Taliban spokesman said.
The claim could not be immediately verified.
If the al Qaeda-linked Taliban freed the prisoners, it could deal a psychological blow to Pakistani security forces following government assertions that security crackdowns have weakened the group.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/15/us-pakistan-prison-escape-idUSBRE83E00H20120415
Obama accidentally seated next to Taliban Leader at tense White House Dinner, causing tense moments in The White House.
How come the Taliban Leader ever got invited to The White House?
Video Link:
http://www.theonion.com/video/obama-accidentally-seated-next-to-taliban-leader-a,26166/
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