KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban unleashed a major assault Saturday on government buildings throughout Afghanistan’s main southern city, an attack that cast doubt on how successful the U.S.-led coalition has been in its nearly year-long military campaign to establish security and stability in the former Taliban stronghold.
The Taliban said its goal was to take control of Kandahar city, the birthplace of the Taliban and President Hamid Karzai’s home province, making it the most ambitious of a series of recent high-profile attacks on government installations.
The attack came a day after the Islamist movement said Osama bin Laden’s death would serve to boost morale, but a Taliban spokesman insisted it had been in the works for months before the al-Qaeda leader was killed by American commandos Monday.
Shooting started shortly after midday and lasted more than seven hours, while government forces were backed by military helicopters firing from overhead.
At least eight locations were attacked: the governor’s compound, the mayor’s office, the intelligence agency headquarters, three police stations and two high schools, according to government officials.
The assailants included at least five suicide attackers in bomb-rigged cars, three of whom were stopped by police before their explosives could go off, NATO forces said in a statement. None of the assaulted compounds was breached by the militants, NATO said.
About 40 to 60 insurgents were involved in the assault, said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Webster Wright, a spokesman for NATO’s Regional Command Southeast. The rebel force was split into squad-sized units and might include more suicide bombers, Wright said.
“They’re trying to make a spectacular event,” he said.
The attackers at the governor’s compound were finally pushed back around nightfall, and Gov. Tooryalai Wesa called reporters in for a news conference at his reclaimed office while fighting continued at the intelligence agency a little over a mile away. Heavy gunfire finally died down across the city about 8:30 p.m.
At least one police officer and one civilian were killed and 20 other people wounded in the assaults, Wesa told reporters, adding that the death toll was likely to rise as troops searched the area. He said six Taliban fighters were killed.
