Taliban Storm Afghan Government Buildings

KABUL, Afghanistan , Feb. 11, 2009 — -- Eight Taliban militants armed with hand grenades, AK-47 assault rifles and suicide vests stormed into three Afghan government buildings today, killing at least 20 and injuring 57, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry.

The coordinated attacks, which began shortly after 10 a.m. local time, targeted Afghanistan's Justice Ministry, Education Ministry and the prisons department building, three months after Kabul police clamped down on Taliban prisoners inside the city's jails.

The Taliban claimed the attack was in response to the "mistreatment" of Taliban prisoners.

Another attacker wearing a suicide vest was shot as he tried to force his way into the Education Ministry.

Today's attacks pierced part of Kabul's highest security area, yet another sign that this country is suffering from a Taliban movement that has more reach than at any point since the war began more than seven years ago.

Across many parts of the country the Taliban have never been stronger and, in a call today to ABC News, they claimed that a total of 20 suicide bombers had recently entered Kabul. There is no way to independently verify the claim, designed to create widespread fear.

For a few hours, that fear paralyzed much of downtown Kabul, including the areas near the presidential palace and the highly guarded Serena Hotel, which is down the street from the Justice Ministry.

Police, soldiers and Afghan special forces surrounded the Justice Ministry building after the initial suicide attack. Four militants approached the building, police officials told ABC News. One blew himself up and the other three entered the building, going door to door and killing anyone inside, witnesses said.

"I heard gunfire in the hallway outside our office and a big explosion and I saw someone with an AK-47 running around shooting anyone in front of him," Mohammadullah Khan, a Justice Department official who was in the building at the time, told ABC News. "I quickly turned off the light and jumped out of the window."