The Taliban Attack Kabul

 
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16.57 ISAF pres release states Taliban attacks were "largely ineffective":

Afghan National Security Forces responded to a series of attacks today in Kabul and in a few outlying provinces. The attacks, which were concentrated in three clusters around the city, were labeled by the Taliban as the start of the so-called “Spring Offensive,” and were largely ineffective.

ISAF quick reaction forces were prepared to respond if required but were not needed.

16.29 Hamid Karzai was discussing the budget with a group of MPs when explosions and gunfire rocked three locations in the capital, including an upmarket diplomatic enclave close to his fortified palace, one of his aides said.

All his afternoon meetings, including one with a delegation of an insurgent group in Kabul for peace talks, were cancelled, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Additional bodyguards were deployed in the presidential palace and a meeting with a delegation of Hezb-i-Islami, an insurgent group led by former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, now holding peace talks with Karzai was cancelled, the aide said.
15.53 The Taliban spoksman has also vowed to launch similar attacks.
15.47 A Taliban spokesman has told Reuters that the attacks today are retaliation for the Koran burnings, US Marine urination video and the Kandahar shooting massacre.
 At least one attacker killed as fighting rages, Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoubi Salangi tells AFP.

Near the parliament, the first floor of a neighbouring building has been taken by police and one terrorist is dead

In two other areas of the city militants have taken positions in tall buildings and "are firing", he says