Afghanistan's intelligence chief and interior minister resigned Sunday to take responsibility for allowing militants to elude a massive security operation and launch an attack on last week's national peace conference.
President Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement he had accepted the resignations of Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and National Directorate of Security chief Amrullah Saleh because they gave unsatisfactory explanations for last Wednesday's attack.
At least two Taliban militants fired rockets at the conference where some 1,500 delegates — including lawmakers, tribal and religious chiefs — discussed how to resolve Afghanistan's nearly 9-year war. The militants then engaged in a gunbattle with security forces near the venue. None of the delegates were hurt. The militants were killed.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said earlier Sunday that the two attackers were able to breach security by dressing as a couple — one in a man's street clothes and the other in a woman's burqa, and clutching a Kalashnikov rifle and a grenade launcher wrapped up in cloth like a swaddled baby.
By: Brant
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