An Attack at a Peace Conference?

Clearly it's the work of the Religion of Peace again...

Taliban militants launched a suicide attack on Afghanistan's national peace conference Wednesday as President Hamid Karzai interrupted his opening remarks to reassure nervous delegates hearing the thump of rockets and rattle of gunfire outside.

No delegates were harmed but at least two attackers were killed in fighting with Afghan security forces near the giant tent erected for the three-day gathering, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to The Associated Press.

The conference, known as a peace jirga, continued. Karzai hopes it will bolster him politically by endorsing his strategy of offering incentives to individual Taliban fighters and reaching out to the insurgent leadership, despite skepticism in Washington about whether the time is right for an overture to militant leaders.

But the attack underscored the weak grip of Karzai's government in the face of the Taliban insurgency, which has strengthened despite record numbers of U.S. forces in country.

"My dear Taliban, you are welcome in your own soil. Do not hurt this country, and don't destroy or kill yourselves," Karzai told the some 1,600 delegates in his opening address, which was broadcast nationally on state television.

But he said militants who caused the deaths of Afghans — an apparent reference to al-Qaida leaders — deserved no sympathy. "Those people who are killing innocents, punish them," Karzai said.

By: Brant