DUSHANBE, September 14, 2011, Asia-Plus — Afghan forces have killed the last insurgents who attacked the US embassy, NATO headquarters and police buildings in Kabul, after a 20-hour stand-off, the BBC reported today morning.
The Afghan authorities say a multi-storey building where the gunmen were holed up has now been cleared. Officials say at least seven people, including four policemen, were killed as well as nine of the insurgents.
The attack, the most complex in Kabul to date, comes as US and other foreign forces begin to withdraw their troops.
NATO and the US embassy said none of their staff were among the casualties.
The Taliban said it was behind the attack, although Afghan officials blamed the Haqqani network, an insurgent group linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda but which operates independently.
The attack began at about 13:30 local time (09:00 GMT) on Tuesday when a car packed with insurgents was stopped at a checkpoint at Abdul Haq Square about one kilometer from the US embassy. Witnesses said there were several large explosions and the insurgents entered a nearby nine-storey building under construction. From there, up to five militants opened fire on the embassy complex with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and possibly a mortar. There was a simultaneous barrage of explosions around the nearby Wazir Akbar Khan area, witnesses said. At the same time in the west of the city, two suicide attackers detonated explosives outside a police station. A third was killed as he tried to make it into the airport. A jail run by the intelligence service was also a target.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attacks, saying they would not deter Afghan forces from taking full responsibility for security by the time international combat troops withdraw. “By carrying out such attacks terrorists cannot stop the transition of security from international to Afghan forces,” he said in a statement.
Earlier this year, NATO”s International Security Assistance Force (IAF) handed over responsibility for security in seven areas of Afghanistan, including two provinces.
