Taliban raid govt buildings, 19 killed

Taliban insurgents attacked two government buildings in Kabul yesterday killing at least 19 people, officials said, in one of the most audacious attacks on the capital by the Islamist group since their ouster in 2001.

Gunmen stormed the Justice Ministry close to the presidential palace, killing two government employees inside, while two suicide bombers attacked another state building in the north of the city, killing at least eight people, officials and witnesses said.

The incidents come at a time of worsening security in the country and a day before Richard Holbrooke, the new US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was expected to visit Kabul.