Shots and explosion rocked the Afghan capital Wednesday as President Hamid Karzai hosted a landmark gathering of 1,600 leaders to seek a national agreement on how to end almost nine years of conflict.
Three explosions, including at least two caused by rocket attacks and barrage of bullets could be heard a few minutes of the three-day "jirga" opening in what had been billed as a strict protection enforced by 12,000 security workers.
Two explosions were heard as Karzai delivered his inaugural address speech and condemned the Taliban to bring suffering and oppression in Afghanistan, while a third took place after about 200 meters (meters) away, told AFP journalists.
Showers of gunfire could be heard near the giant air-conditioned tent in the southeastern suburbs of Kabul, they say.
Two suicide bombers were killed soon after and another captured alive after they fired a rocket at the Jirga tent, "said one official.
"Three suicide bombers dressed in a burqa into a house that was under construction. They fired an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) at the tent," Ghulam Farooq Wardak told delegates to the council, which takes place in Kabul.
"Thank God, were two of them killed, pay for their crimes? The third is caught," Wardak, organizer of the "Peace Jirga," said.
Taliban Wednesday claimed blame for the attack.
"We have four suicide bombers placed on top of a tall building close to the jirga tent. They threaten Jirga tent," Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, told AFP by telephone.
"They use missiles, they have guns and explosives attached to his body, he says.
The Islamist militia nine-year rebellion against Karzai has Western-backed government is now in its deadly and the group last month promised to unleash a new wave of attacks on diplomats, legislators and foreign forces.
Karzai appealed to the jirga delegates to give advice on how to bring the impoverished country devastated by three decades of war, out of the conflict and urge the Taliban to disarm.
"We need a national consultation, a discussion peace across Afghanistan," said Karzai.
"The Afghan nation is looking at you. They are waiting for decisions, your advice so you can view the Afghan country, the way to achieve peace, to save Afghanistan from this suffering and pain."
Hundreds of bearded men in tribal dress and turbans sat in rows and a portrait of Karzai hung over the blue-carpeted stage with a shield bearing the words National Advisory Peace Jirga written in Dari and Pashto.
Women delegates to the 300 account for about 20 percent of the total were mostly located in a separate section that Afghanistan's conservative social services usually keep the women apart from men, which they are associated.
The meeting is the third such discussion unite Afghanistan's complex mix of ethnic, tribal, religious, geographic and gender were the interests of the Taliban overthrown in 2001.
But critics have warned that the outcome is likely to prove limited and ordinary Afghans have been divided on the possible outcome.
Taliban leaders had issued a statement Tuesday condemning the jirga.
"The foreign invading forces and their surrogates to take this consultative jirga only as a misinformation stunt and wrong (paint) as a representative body of Afghans," he said.
The Jirga will be held after the Al-Qaeda announced that his number three leader and Afghanistan operations commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, believed to have been killed in a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan late last month.
Karzai Western Allies, led by the United States has expressed support for the Jirga as a milestone in Afghanistan's political maturity.
Western public appetite is waning for a war that has killed nearly 1,800 foreign soldiers, and shows no signs of slowing, foreign capitals to see progress in an international conference set for late July in Kabul.
The number of U.S. and NATO troops to a peak of 150,000 in August as part of a strategy to turn the speed Taliban and to increase public power in the southern Kandahar and Helmand province.
U.S. President Barack Obama has said he wants to start drawing down troops from the middle of the 2011th
After the election of a chairman and two alternate delegates will be divided into 28 groups, each with a spokesperson to present their ideas to the general forum.
The Jirga is expected to end on Friday with a statement about what steps to take to end the uprising, which groups should be included in the process, and how they should be approached.
The role of Afghanistan's neighbors - especially Iran and Pakistan - is well thought-out crucial to the success of any peace negotiations.
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