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‘Spring offensive’ by Taliban rattles Kabul Heavy explosions, rockets and gunfire rattled Kabul yesterday as Afghanistan’s Taliban launched a “spring offensive� with multiple attacks targeting Western embassies, the NATO force’s headquarters and the parliament building. The assault, one of the most serious on the capital since U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001, highlighted the ability of mili-
“These attacks are the beginning of the spring oensive and we had planned them for months.â€? TALIBAN SPOKESMAN ZABIHULLAH MUJAHID
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2012
GETTY IMAGES
GETTY IMAGES
tants to strike the heavily GETTY IMAGES guarded diplomatic zone even after more than 10 years of war. It was also another election-year setback in Afghanistan for U.S. President Barack Obama, who wants to present the long campaign against the Taliban as a success before the departure of most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. “These attacks are the beginning of the spring offensive and we had planned them for months,� Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters. He said the onslaught was revenge for a series of incidents involving American troops in Afghanistan — inNATO soldiers take position at the site of a gunbattle after cluding the burning of Korans Taliban militants launched a series of coordinated attacks across at a NATO base and the masKabul, Afghanistan. sacre of 17 civilians by a U.S. soldier. REUTERS
View of the ocean liner ‘Titanic’ on her ďŹ rst and last voyage, after leaving Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland.
Atlantic tribute to dead of the Titanic At the shrill sound of a ship’s whistle in the North Atlantic, relatives of some of the more than 1,500 people who died when the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg remembered their ancestors in a poignant ceremony a century later. On a still, starry night and with little glare from the moon, the memorial cruise ship MS Balmoral floated above the wreckage of the famous ‘unsinkable’ luxury liner precisely 100 years to the day it foundered.
“At 2:20 a.m. all was quiet, as it would have been 100 years ago when it went deathly quiet, when the screaming stopped,� British Titanic historian Philip Littlejohn told Reuters yesterday. Littlejohn’s grandfather, Alexander Littlejohn, was a 1st class steward in charge of lifeboat 13 when the ship began to go down. About 700 people were rescued that night, including his grandfather, but there were too few lifeboats to save the rest. REUTERS
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