Militants attack as Afghan peace conference starts

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Dhaka summit between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2011 raised much hope but delivered too little.

KABUL, June 2 (AP): Taliban suicide attackers struck at the national peace conference as it opened Wednesday in the Afghan capital, waging gunbattles near the venue. At least two attackers were killed but no delegates were hurt, officials said.
The attack, including rocket fire, started minutes after President Hamid Karzai began his opening address to some 1,600 dignitaries gathered for the conference, in which he appealed for rank-and-file Taliban members to stop fighting for the sake of the country.
The Taliban, which had earlier threatened to kill anyone who took part, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to The Associated Press, saying they intended to sabotage the three-day conference.
The conference, known as a peace jirga, continued despite the attack.
Karzai hopes it will bolster him politically by endorsing his strategy of offering incentives to individual Taliban fighters and reaching out to the insurgent leadership, despite skepticism in Washington about whether the time is right for an overture to militant leaders.
But the attack underscored the weak grip of Karzai's government in the face of the Taliban insurgency, which has grown in strength despite record numbers of U.S. forces in country.
In his speech, Karzai said years of violence and infighting had caused widespread suffering that had driven many ordinary Afghans to join the Taliban and another major insurgent group, Hizb-i-Islami, out of fear. He appealed to them to renounce extremism.
About 10 minutes into his speech, Karzai was briefly interrupted by an explosion outside, which police said was a rocket. Karzai heard the thud, but dismissed it, telling delegates, "Don't worry. We've heard this kind of thing before."