Kabul:
With rockets landing nearby and gunfire crackling, President Hamid Karzai opened a national consultative peace assembly on Wednesday morning with the goal of winning popular backing for his plan to persuade Taliban and insurgent foot soldiers to stop fighting.
In his speech, which was interrupted by a rocket that exploded close by, forcing Mr. Karzai to tell his audience not to worry, he spoke directly to the Taliban, calling on them to join the government.
Within minutes, a larger explosion from another rocket shook the large tent where the gathering, known as a jirga, was being held. The jirga took a scheduled 10-minute break, but had not returned nearly an hour later.
At least one suicide bomber blew himself up near the Takya Khana mosque, close to the jirga site, according to Ezatullah, a police officer in District 5, which includes that area. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name.
Mr. Ezatullah said police officials believed "a few suicide attackers" had entered the area.
"There is still fighting," he said, "and the police are trying to kill them."
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, took credit for the attacks and said the insurgents had sent four suicide bombers to Kabul, although he wasn't yet sure if any had blown themselves up.
"Our main purpose is to disrupt the peace jirga," Mr. Mujahid said, adding that the bombers were armed with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and grenades. He said they had installed themselves on the roof of a building at Kabul Polytechnical University and were firing down on the jirga tent.
In Mr. Karzai's speech to the jirga, he called the Taliban "brothers" and "dear Talibs," and he described their flight to Pakistan and their fighting as a reaction to injustices done by local Afghans who had "disturbed them " and by foreign troops.
"To those Taliban compelled to flee by the government's and foreign troops' mistakes, they are welcome and can come and join us," Mr. Karzai said.
Not welcome, he noted, were those connected to Al Qaida and those who have harmed innocent Afghans just trying to live their lives. He singled out those who killed teachers and scholars as particularly reprehensible.
"I can't forgive," Mr. Karzai said. "Al Qaida or those who kill students, teachers, scholars, there is no room for them in the peace jirga."
He made no reference to the main reasons that people have joined the insurgency, which is frustration with a lack of government services and anger about governmental corruption and incompetence.
The jirga was to elect a chairman later Wednesday morning before approving the agenda prepared by the government and breaking into groups for discussions.
The jirga is nonbinding, and the attendees were selected with heavy government input, raising questions about whether its conclusions will be taken seriously by Afghans.
Convening a jirga was one of Mr. Karzai's central campaign promises before his re-election last year, made in recognition of the growing public unhappiness with the war.
The outcome is largely preordained, as the government has handpicked the delegates and broadly set the parameters of the discussion. But the event is not wholly without risk. It is already being criticized as being more symbolic than practical, and even as a show of national unity intended to wring money from international donors.
"If you were serious about a reconciliation process, a jirga like this would be the right thing to do, to consult the population, to discuss grievances, resolve issues," said Martine van Biljert, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a policy research organization. "But it doesn't look like it will seriously provide a platform for any of this."
Many of Mr. Karzai's fellow ethnic Pashtuns insist that only talks with the Taliban leadership, and with Pakistan, which has long backed the insurgents, will end the war. Their support is critical since most fighting is in Pashtun areas, and the Taliban are predominantly Pashtuns.
"I will tell you in two words how to bring peace," said Hajji Muhammad Omar, a member of Parliament from Kunduz, who served as a governor during the Taliban's rule. "First, talk to the Taliban leadership and second, convince Pakistan."
The jirga could call for the formation of a commission of elders to initiate contacts with the Taliban leadership, Mr. Wardak said. But many Pashtuns are already saying the jirga is a waste of time without the presence of the Taliban. According to Afghan tribal custom, a jirga is supposed to bring the two warring parties together on neutral ground while selected elders negotiate and then guarantee a settlement that is binding on all parties.
Mr. Karzai's early plans to invite representatives of the Taliban and of Hezb-e-Islami were abandoned in February, Mr. Wardak said. The Taliban leadership council had agreed to enter talks and send representatives to a peace jirga, according to two Afghan security officials, but contacts ended after the arrest of the Taliban's No. 2 leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in January.
In his speech, which was interrupted by a rocket that exploded close by, forcing Mr. Karzai to tell his audience not to worry, he spoke directly to the Taliban, calling on them to join the government.
Within minutes, a larger explosion from another rocket shook the large tent where the gathering, known as a jirga, was being held. The jirga took a scheduled 10-minute break, but had not returned nearly an hour later.
At least one suicide bomber blew himself up near the Takya Khana mosque, close to the jirga site, according to Ezatullah, a police officer in District 5, which includes that area. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name.
Mr. Ezatullah said police officials believed "a few suicide attackers" had entered the area.
"There is still fighting," he said, "and the police are trying to kill them."
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, took credit for the attacks and said the insurgents had sent four suicide bombers to Kabul, although he wasn't yet sure if any had blown themselves up.
"Our main purpose is to disrupt the peace jirga," Mr. Mujahid said, adding that the bombers were armed with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and grenades. He said they had installed themselves on the roof of a building at Kabul Polytechnical University and were firing down on the jirga tent.
In Mr. Karzai's speech to the jirga, he called the Taliban "brothers" and "dear Talibs," and he described their flight to Pakistan and their fighting as a reaction to injustices done by local Afghans who had "disturbed them " and by foreign troops.
"To those Taliban compelled to flee by the government's and foreign troops' mistakes, they are welcome and can come and join us," Mr. Karzai said.
Not welcome, he noted, were those connected to Al Qaida and those who have harmed innocent Afghans just trying to live their lives. He singled out those who killed teachers and scholars as particularly reprehensible.
"I can't forgive," Mr. Karzai said. "Al Qaida or those who kill students, teachers, scholars, there is no room for them in the peace jirga."
He made no reference to the main reasons that people have joined the insurgency, which is frustration with a lack of government services and anger about governmental corruption and incompetence.
The jirga was to elect a chairman later Wednesday morning before approving the agenda prepared by the government and breaking into groups for discussions.
The jirga is nonbinding, and the attendees were selected with heavy government input, raising questions about whether its conclusions will be taken seriously by Afghans.
Convening a jirga was one of Mr. Karzai's central campaign promises before his re-election last year, made in recognition of the growing public unhappiness with the war.
The outcome is largely preordained, as the government has handpicked the delegates and broadly set the parameters of the discussion. But the event is not wholly without risk. It is already being criticized as being more symbolic than practical, and even as a show of national unity intended to wring money from international donors.
"If you were serious about a reconciliation process, a jirga like this would be the right thing to do, to consult the population, to discuss grievances, resolve issues," said Martine van Biljert, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a policy research organization. "But it doesn't look like it will seriously provide a platform for any of this."
Many of Mr. Karzai's fellow ethnic Pashtuns insist that only talks with the Taliban leadership, and with Pakistan, which has long backed the insurgents, will end the war. Their support is critical since most fighting is in Pashtun areas, and the Taliban are predominantly Pashtuns.
"I will tell you in two words how to bring peace," said Hajji Muhammad Omar, a member of Parliament from Kunduz, who served as a governor during the Taliban's rule. "First, talk to the Taliban leadership and second, convince Pakistan."
The jirga could call for the formation of a commission of elders to initiate contacts with the Taliban leadership, Mr. Wardak said. But many Pashtuns are already saying the jirga is a waste of time without the presence of the Taliban. According to Afghan tribal custom, a jirga is supposed to bring the two warring parties together on neutral ground while selected elders negotiate and then guarantee a settlement that is binding on all parties.
Mr. Karzai's early plans to invite representatives of the Taliban and of Hezb-e-Islami were abandoned in February, Mr. Wardak said. The Taliban leadership council had agreed to enter talks and send representatives to a peace jirga, according to two Afghan security officials, but contacts ended after the arrest of the Taliban's No. 2 leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in January.
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