KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban militants attacked the compound of an American-run contractor in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing at least five people and sending a stinging message to the United States as it engages in peace talks with the group.
The attack in Kabul, the capital, which the Interior Ministry said also wounded 24, was a clear rebuke to the peace process even after the Taliban leadership met with American negotiators last week in the sixth round of peace talks in Doha, Qatar.
“Today’s attack showed that the Taliban don’t believe in peace — it was a direct message to the Americans that the Taliban will be the winner of the Afghan war,” said Atiqullah Amarkhel, a retired Afghan Army general and military analyst.
Mr. Amarkhel said the Taliban were declaring that “they are the leader of the peace talks and the Americans should listen to them and accept their demands.”
The five-and-a-half-hour siege on Wednesday began with a car bomb and ended when security forces killed all four armed infiltrators, said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Among those killed during the attack were an officer from an elite police response unit and an Afghan woman, and one of the wounded was a foreign national, he said.
The attackers targeted a compound operated by Counterpart International, which is primarily funded by the United States Agency for International Development. The group has operated in Afghanistan since 2005, focusing on civic engagement projects, according to its website.
In a Twitter post claiming responsibility for the attack, a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, described Counterpart as “a U.S. network,” indicating that it was singled out because it is an American-led organization.
Mr. Mujahid accused Counterpart International of conducting “harmful Western activities inside Afghanistan.” He said it employed “foreign advisers” who had engaged in “various aspects of brutality, oppression, terror, anti-Islamic ideology and promotion of Western culture.”
The Taliban also said Counterpart International promoted “open intermixing” of Afghan men and women. Before the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001, women were prohibited from meeting with men and could not leave home unless accompanied by a close male relative.
Counterpart International has recently promoted participation in the Afghan election process. The Taliban bitterly oppose elections, depicting them as a Western concept imposed on the Afghan people. The militants have refused to include the Afghan government in the peace talks, calling it illegitimate.
The attack underscored the importance of contractors to the American-led international effort in Afghanistan. Thousands of contractors support the military and provide crucial manpower for relief and civil society programs, easily outnumbering the 14,000 American troops deployed in the country.
Mr. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, accused President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan of working directly with Counterpart International. In a statement, Mr. Ghani condemned the attack, calling it “an unforgivable crime” that violated Afghan and Islamic values.
Mr. Ghani held a five-day peace assembly last week that drew 3,200 Afghans but angered the Taliban, who rejected his call for a cease-fire for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Mr. Ghani is seeking a second term as president in elections scheduled for September, but his political rivals have suggested installing an interim government.
“The Taliban sent a direct message that they don’t believe in peace and they will keep fighting,” said Nazifah Zaki, a former member of Parliament who served as a general in the Afghan security forces.
She said the attack was intended to pressure American negotiators into agreeing to a timeline for withdrawing troops.
The bombing came on the third day of Ramadan, a monthlong observance of fasting and charitable giving. The Taliban warned last week that they would continue attacks during Ramadan but said they would take care to avoid harming civilians.
But the Counterpart International compound, in the Shahr-e-Naw neighborhood of Kabul, was filled with dozens of civilian employees when the car bomb exploded shortly before noon. Four gunmen made their way on foot to the fourth floor of a building used by Counterpart and engaged in gun battles with security forces, said Mr. Rahimi, the Interior Ministry spokesman.
Mr. Rahimi said security forces rescued people from the compound as they battled the attackers. Counterpart International staff members took cover in two fortified safe rooms, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with reporters.
A number of adjacent shops and cars were badly damaged during the attack.
“We are incredibly saddened by this attack and are working as quickly as possible to account for our staff,” Counterpart International said in a statement.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the American peace envoy at the Doha talks, has said that one of his goals is a permanent, comprehensive cease-fire. But the Taliban delegation has refused to discuss a cease-fire and other issues until the United States agrees to a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops.
The United States and the Taliban have agreed on a framework for the withdrawal of troops in exchange for a Taliban guarantee that terrorist groups will not mount attacks from Afghan soil. The United States invaded Afghanistan following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which were planned by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan when the Taliban ruled the country.
Mr. Khalilzad has not yet commented on the Kabul attack. No Americans were reported among the dead.
The State Department said last month that the Taliban had committed to cut ties with Al Qaeda and to fight Islamic State loyalists in Afghanistan.
But analysts said the attack in Kabul showed that the Taliban do not want a cease-fire because they are convinced they have the upper hand in the war. The militants control or contest more territory in Afghanistan than at any time since the 2001 invasion.
John R. Bass, the American ambassador, condemned the attack as an act of “senseless violence.”
“The targeted organization helps local communities, trains journalists and supports the Afghan people,” Mr. Bass wrote on Twitter.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan called the attack “particularly deplorable, hitting civilians helping Afghans & taking place during Ramadan.”
Source : Nytimes
