Militants attack Afghan capital Kabul

Suspected Taliban militants have launched an attack in the Afghan capital Kabul, setting off explosions and sparking a gun battle.

The fighting is in an area around the presidential palace, Serena Hotel, the Central Bank and Ministry of Justice.

The Taliban says 20 fighters, including suicide bombers, are involved. Nato forces say at least two insurgents have been killed.

This is the latest in a series of increasingly brazen attacks on Kabul.

A statement on a Taliban website said the latest raid had specifically targeted government buildings and the hotel.

There are reports of one recent massive explosion in the diplomatic quarter

'Chaotic scene'

Nato's Isaf force said it was "working closely with our Afghan partners to aggressively contain the situation during which several small explosions were reported near the Feroshgah-e-Afghan shopping centre and the Serena Hotel".

Streets in the centre of the city have been closed and hotels and government buildings have been locked down.

There are reports of a number of wounded people being ferried away in ambulances.

One official trapped in a government building told the Reuters news agency: "It is a chaotic scene, we do not know what to do and where to go."

Taliban militants have launched a number of recent attacks on Kabul.

In October, five UN staff were killed in a raid on a UN guesthouse. The Serena Hotel was also targeted in the attack.

The BBC's Mark Dummett in Kabul says there will be huge concern that the militants have again broken through to the most protected part of the city, although security forces say they do prevent many other attacks.

Monday's attack comes amid continuing political uncertainty in Afghanistan.

Some new members of President Hamid Karzai's cabinet were being sworn in at the time of the raid, but there are still a large number of posts vacant.

Parliament has twice rejected many of Mr Karzai's nominations for a new cabinet, forcing the president to direct deputy ministers or other caretaker figures to run their ministries.

The uncertainty comes ahead of the key London Conference on Afghanistan later this month.

Mr Karzai was re-elected last August in a vote marred by fraud.

Since then, the US and Nato have launched an overhaul of Afghan policy, with a large number of additional troops pledged.

US shuts embassy as al-Qaeda 'plans attack in Yemen'

The US has indications that al-Qaeda is planning an attack in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser has said.

John Brennan was speaking after the US shut its embassy in Yemen. "We're not going to take any chances" with the lives of staff, he said.

Britain also closed its embassy, after threats from an al-Qaeda offshoot which claimed a failed bomb plot in the US.

There are mounting fears that Yemen is becoming a leading al-Qaeda haven.

Mr Brennan, the US Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, told ABC's This Week TV programme that the group had "several hundred members" in Yemen and was posing an increasing threat there.

"This is something that we've known about for a while," he said. "We're determined to destroy al-Qaeda, whether it's in Pakistan, Afghanistan, or in Yemen."

He also said the US believed the group was "planning to carry out an attack against a target inside of Sanaa, possibly our embassy".

Last week an organisation called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged Muslims to help in "killing every crusader who works at their embassies or other places".

In an internet statement, the group also said it was behind an attempt to bomb a transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day.

YEMEN FACTS Population: 23.6 million (UN, 2009) Capital: Sanaa Language: Arabic Major religion: Islam Oil exports: $1.5bn/24.5m barrels (Jan-Oct 2009) Income per capita: US $950 (World Bank, 2008)

On Saturday, President Barack Obama said the organisation appeared to have trained 23-year-old Nigerian accused Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is being held in a US prison.

It was not clear when the UK or US embassies would reopen.

In a statement on its website, the US embassy said it would be closed on Sunday "in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack American interests in Yemen".

The embassy also reminded US citizens in Yemen to be aware of security.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the British embassy was closed on Sunday and a decision would be taken later on whether to open it on Monday.

Hours earlier, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC: "This is a new type of threat and it is from a new source which is obviously Yemen, but there are many other potential sources Somalia, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan."

The US mission in Sanaa was the target of an attack in September 2008, which was blamed on al-Qaeda, and in which 19 people died, including a young American woman.

Also on Saturday, Gen David Petraeus, head of US military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, visited Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh to pledge US support for its fight with al-Qaeda.

The visit came a day after the general announced that the US would more than double counter-terrorism aid to Yemen this year.

The US provided $67m (£41m) in training and support to Yemen last year; only Pakistan receives more, with about $112m, according to AP news agency.

Yemeni officials said on Saturday they had sent more troops to fight al-Qaeda militants in the provinces of Abyan, Baida and Shabwa.

Yemeni security forces have been fighting militants

"These measures are part of operations to hunt down elements of al-Qaeda... and tighten the noose around extremists," a Yemeni official told AFP news agency.

Analysts say the US has also provided intelligence to Yemeni forces, which carried out raids last month that reportedly left dozens of militants dead.

In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama said militant training camps in Yemen had already "been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted".

Correspondents say the security situation in Yemeni is complicated by an abundance of firearms, an insurgency in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.

But the prospects of re-asserting central government authority over the lawless areas where al-Qaeda is based look, in the opinion of some analysts, remote - even with beefed-up American support.

Obama rallies CIA after Afghanistan bomb attack

Barack Obama has sent a letter of support to the CIA after seven staff were killed by an Afghan bomber - one of the worst attacks in its history.

The US president's condolence message praised the work of those killed.

The dead include the head of the CIA's base in Khost Province, near the border with Pakistan, the Associated Press news agency reports.

The Taliban said one of their members wearing an explosive vest and an army uniform had carried out the attack.

It was the worst against US intelligence officials since the American embassy in Beirut was bombed in 1983.

A total of 90 CIA employees have been honoured for their deaths in the agency's service since its inception in 1947, according to the Washington Post newspaper.

Taliban hotbed

The bombing has raised questions about the coalition's ability to protect itself against infiltrators, analysts say.

CIA DEATHS: 1965-2009 2009: Seven killed in suicide attack on their base in Afghanistan 2003: Two CIA contractors die in Shkin, Afghanistan; CIA officer killed during training exercise in Afghanistan 2001: Officer shot during prison uprising in Afghanistan 1993: Two CIA employees killed at the agency's Virginia headquarters 1989: Six CIA employees die when a plane carrying military equipment from DR Congo to Angola crashes 1985: CIA Beirut station chief killed after having been kidnapped and tortured 1983: Eight CIA employees killed in the US embassy bombing in Beirut 1965: Seven CIA employees die, most of them in Vietnam Source: Washington Post

Quoting former CIA officials, AP said the base chief would have led intelligence-gathering operations in Khost, a hotbed of Taliban activity due to its proximity to Pakistan's lawless tribal region.

An unnamed official added that the bomber was being courted as an informant and was not frisked as he entered Forward Operating Base Chapman.

Paying tribute to the fallen, Mr Obama said those killed were "part of a long line of patriots who have made great sacrifices for their fellow citizens, and for our way of life".

He told CIA employees that they had "taken great risks to protect our country" and that their sacrifices had "sometimes been unknown to your fellow citizens, your friends, and even your families".

CIA Director Leon Panetta said six other agents had been injured in Wednesday's attack.

"Those who fell yesterday were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism," he said.

"We owe them our deepest gratitude, and we pledge to them and their families that we will never cease fighting for the cause to which they dedicated their lives - a safer America."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the BBC the Khost bomber was wearing an army uniform when he managed to breach security at the base, detonating his explosives belt in the gym.

Drone attacks

Neither the names of the CIA officials killed nor the details of their work were released because of the sensitivity of US operations, the agency said.

Mr Panetta paid tribute to the fallen and pledged to continue their fight

The flags at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, are being flown at half-mast in honour of the dead.

Reports say the Chapman base is used by provincial reconstruction teams - which include soldiers and civilians.

It has been described as "not regular" - a phrase that implies it was a centre of CIA operations, says the BBC's Peter Greste in Kabul.

The forward operating base is reportedly used for US drone attacks on suspected militants in neighbouring Pakistan.

In the latest such attack, two people were reportedly killed in a strike on a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan on Thursday, security officials said.

Meanwhile, in a series of deadly attacks in Afghanistan:

• Taliban militants beheaded six men they suspected of being spies for the government in the southern province of Uruzgan, police said
• Four Canadian soldiers and a journalist died in a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar, in the most deadly attack on Canadians in the country for more than two years
• Two French journalists were reportedly kidnapped in Kapisa province, north-east of Kabul, along with their Afghan driver and interpreter