KABUL/BERLIN - Taliban fighters opened fire, hurled grenades and staged suicide bombings in central Kabul on Friday, killing at least 18 people in defiance of the Western-backed government and a NATO offensive. An Italian diplomat and Indian government officials were killed in the assault, the governments said. Also among the dead were eight Afghans, including three police officers, the Afghan Interior Ministry said. The French Foreign Ministry said one French national had been killed and India's Foreign Ministry said up to nine Indians were killed. The attack came in the second week of a joint NATO-Afghan offensive against the Taliban in their stronghold in Helmand province, one of the biggest in the eight-year-old war, designed to put the Afghan government fully in control of the country. Some 38 people were wounded in the two-hour assault, which started after at least one suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a guesthouse frequented by Indians. "I heard a big blast," witness Quaree Sameh told reporters. "The glass shattered. The attackers were throwing grenades and shooting." The blast triggered car alarms and sent plumes of smoke into the damp, cold morning air at the start of the Afghan weekend. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attacks. Two NATO soldiers have died in Afghanistan, including one Briton who died during a major assault on a poppy-growing region, officials said yesterday. Britain's Ministry of Defence said one of its soldiers died after an explosion near a checkpoint in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province as part of Operation Mushtarak (Together) yesterday. Meanwhile, the German parliament has approved plans to send up to 850 extra troops to Afghanistan. Lawmakers voted 429-111 with 46 abstentions yesterday to increase the maximum number of German troops allowed to serve in Afghanistan to 5,350 from 4,500. Under the government plan announced last month, Berlin will send 500 extra troops to Afghanistan and focus more on training local forces. The new mandate, valid for a year, allows for another 350 soldiers to be deployed as a "flexible reserve" …quot; for example helping secure elections. Parliamentary approval is required for German deployments abroad. Germany currently has 4,340 troops in northern Afghanistan. It hopes to start reducing its contingent next year but isn't setting a specific withdrawal date.
