Afghanistan investigates deadly parade attack

KABUL- Afghanistan was Monday investigating how militants could get within 500 metres of President Hamid Karzai and other top leaders to carry out a brazen attack that left three Afghans dead.
The insurgent Taliban movement said it launched Sunday's attack to show it had the power to strike even the nation's biggest annual military parade.
The event, which was supposed to showcase the Afghan army's growing strength after getting new training and equipment, mainly from the United States, had been weeks in the making with stepped-up patrols and roadblocks around Kabul.
Karzai immediately announced an investigation to find out how the militants breached security to hammer bullets into the back of the stage where he was seated with a host of Afghan and foreign dignitaries as well as launch rockets.
"First, it will investigate the plot and identify those behind the attack ... and second it will find out where the problem in providing security lay," Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters.
The inquiry would comprise the ministries of defence and interior, the intelligence agency and the presidential security guard, the general said.
The attack erupted soon after Karzai had reached the platform following an inspection of troops and as a 21-gun salute was ringing out across the city to mark the 16th anniversary of the fall of the last communist government.
Security forces were nonetheless praised for their swift response.
Moments after the gunfire and explosions erupted, they had shot dead three attackers in a building about 500 metres (1,500 feet) from the stage where Karzai and other officials were seated.
The building, near the city's biggest mosque, is backed by a warren of bombed-out structures in one of Kabul's most shabby areas, known as a haunt of drug users and criminals.
The attackers, armed with machine guns that had grenade launchers attached, were caught with a solid supply of bullets and grenades, defence ministry officials said.
The militants killed two men -- a national parliamentarian and a tribal leader -- and wounded nearly 10, the defence ministry officials said. A 10-year-old boy was also killed, apparently in return fire.
Several people were quickly arrested, "one or two of them most likely involved in this terrorist attack," Wardak said.
Security forces had "identified some people who might have facilitated this act of terrorism," the minister added, without giving details.
Analyst Waheed Mujda said there was a chance elements of the security forces may have been involved, as has been suggested in the previous most dramatic attack in Kabul -- the Taliban's storming of a five-star hotel in January.
That strike, carried out by men in police uniform, left at least eight people dead, including three foreign nationals. It forced many venues frequented by foreigners to ramp up security.
Just like some ordinary Afghans support the "armed opposition," so do some members of the army or police, Mujda said.
"I think it would have been very difficult for them to carry out such an attack without supports from these elements," he said.
The 1996-2001 Taliban government was ousted in a US-led invasion for harbouring Al-Qaeda leaders after the 9/11 attacks.
They have regrouped to wage an insurgency that last year left 8,000 people dead, mostly rebel fighters but including 1,500 civilians.
A Western diplomat said the fact the attackers could hit such a "high-value target" was a propaganda victory, but it would be wrong to assume the strike was due to the incompetence of the security forces.
"You have got a city which has got four million-plus people, and what you never get any attention to is what does not happen," he said on condition of anonymity.
"The NDS (National Directorate of Security) is an extremely effective intelligence outfit and they have stopped a lot of attacks and have been very successful in frustrating many insurgent attempts to penetrate the city."
The diplomat added that only a small group was involved in Sunday's attack and they had only been able to come within "the end of effective range."
UN spokesman in Afghanistan, Aleem Siddique, said the Afghan security forces did a good job in securing Karzai and the other dignitaries.
"They acted calmly and swiftly took action," he said. Nonetheless, "We welcome the investigation that Karzai has announced to look at how this incident could have occurred."