Musadeq Sadeq / AP Photo
Just minutes after Afghan President Hamid Karzai began a speech at a national peace conference in Kabul on Tuesday with 1,000 dignitaries in attendance, Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on the city. Two attackers were killed and another was taken hostage, and no conference attendees were injured. Held in a tent on a university compound, the peace jirga had been intended to jump start Karzai’s plan to reach out to individual Taliban leaders and give them incentives to leave the group, but the Taliban had threatened to kill anyone who took part. This attack once again proved how vulnerable Karzai is, and he was dismissive when rocket noise from the attack grew louder during his speech. “Don't worry. We've heard this kind of thing before,” he said.