Afghanistan Latest: Taliban Launch Multiple Attacks in Kabul and East of Country (New York Times)

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The Taliban staged multiple and sustained attacks across Kabul and eastern Afghanistan on Sunday hitting the heavily secured diplomatic neighborhood of Kabul and the Parliament area as well as Afghan government installations in at least two provinces.

A NATO spokesman confirmed multiple attacks had occurred across Kabul, potentially in as many as seven locations.

The attack in the city began at about 1:35 p.m. and was still under way more than an hour and 15 minutes later. The Kabul police said that two attacks were under way, one near the Zanbak Square entry to the Presidential Palace and one near Parliament.

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Afghanistan: "Deadliest Day" for US as 30 Troops Die When Copter Shot Down (Rivera/Rubin/Shanker)

In the deadliest day for American forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter on Saturday, killing 30 Americans, including some Navy Seal commandos from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as 8 Afghans, American and Afghan officials said.

The helicopter, on a night-raid mission in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province, to the west of Kabul, was most likely brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, one coalition official said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and they could hardly have found a more valuable target: American officials said that 22 of the dead were Navy Seal commandos, including members of Seal Team 6. Other commandos from that team conducted the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Bin Laden in May. The officials said that those who were killed Saturday were not involved in the Pakistan mission.

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