Afghan police officers react as some duck for cover after a mortar hit the compound of the National Police Training Center during an inauguration ceremony in central Wardak province, Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Afghanistan's second Vice President Mohammed Karim Khalili, Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi and NATO officials were attending the inauguration.Gemunu Amarasinghe
Insurgents are pressing forward with their promised campaign to kill government officials and any Afghans working with foreigners, targeting a ceremony today at a new police training centre in central Wardak province that was attended by the country's second vice-president Karim Khalili and Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi.
A mortar exploded some 50 metres from the newly opened donor-financed compound, the biggest in Afghanistan, just as Mr. Khalili was finishing his speech. NATO and Afghan bodyguards hustled him and other officials out of the building as hundreds of police recruits sat stunned in their seats.
At about the same time, a suicide bomber blew himself up just outside the offices of the governor of Kapisa province north of Kabul, killing eight people including four police officers.
In the last six weeks, the Taliban have carried out high-profile attacks on district and provincial government figures while continuing their campaign of attacks on Afghan security forces. They have stated plainly, even as direct field fighting has fallen off this summer compared to last summer, that their goal is to warn off or assassinate anyone who helps what they call the Afghan "puppet" government.