Gunfight, Explosions Rock Afghan Peace Conference

A series of explosions and gunfire has rattled the Afghan capital, disrupting the start of a major peace conference.

The sound of exploding rockets echoed through Kabul Wednesday, just as 1,600 delegates from across the country gathered to hear President Hamid Karzai open the three-day meeting.

Taliban officials claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they had sent four, heavily armed suicide bombers to target the traditional meeting, or jirga.  One official told the Associated Press the goal was to "sabotage and destroy" the meeting.  

Police and witnesses said at least two rockets slammed into the ground not far from the tent where delegates were meeting.  The first blast sounded as President Karzai spoke, but he urged delegates to ignore the attack and continued speaking.    Witnesses said Mr. Karzai later left in an armored convoy.

Government spokesman Farouq Wardak said security forces shot and killed two suicide bombers trying to infiltrate the meeting wearing burqas.  He said a third had been arrested.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary also said Afghan forces had surrounded a home near the conference site in western Kabul where the remaining militants were hiding.

Thousands of security forces had been deployed around Kabul for the jirga, aimed at helping Afghans reach a national consensus on how to persuade insurgents to give up their arms.  

Prior to the start of the conference, the Taliban dismissed its importance, calling the current Afghan government a "powerless stooge" and demanding that all foreign troops leave Afghanistan.  A smaller militant group, Hezb-i-Islami, called the conference useless because only people handpicked by the government are attending.

But during his address, President Karzai reached out to the militants, asking those who fled the country to return to Afghanistan and rejoin society.  Mr. Karzai said they were all brothers and needed to free themselves from all the killing.

Still, he said al-Qaida members and those who killed civilians would not be forgiven.

Even before it started, the conference got underway had been subject to criticism.

President Karzai's main political opponent in last year's election, Abdullah Abdullah, said he would not attend because the jirga's agenda does not address the concerns of ordinary Afghans.

Other critics said not enough women were participating.  In response to those complaints, Mr. Karzai increased the number of female delegates to about 20 percent of the 1,600-member assembly.

The assembly is expected to discuss whom the Karzai government should talk to with regard to the Taliban, as well as the future of foreign troops in Afghanistan, but the first day was expected to be mostly ceremonial.