Taliban bomb Afghan parliament, speaker of the house carries on unperturbed

As the building shook from a Taliban bomb blast at the Afghan parliament yesterday, the speaker of the house carried on his duties without batting an eyelid.

The moment was captured by Afghan TV, with Abdul Rauf Ibrahim continuing to speak as dust fell from the ceilings and even as MPs grabbed at him to get him to cover.

Outside, Afghan security forces were battling a Taliban commando force, which included a suicide bomber and at least six gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.

Within two hours, all the attackers were dead after reportedly being cornered in a building near the parliament. The Taliban had failed to kill any of their targets but up to 40 people were injured and two civilians died in the earlier car bomb.

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