Kabul siege ends after 20 hrs

Talibans deadliest attack in a decade on Afghanistan capital leaves 27 dead

It was the longest and most audacious militant attack on the Afghan capital since the Taliban were ousted from power and a stark reminder of insurgents’ resources and reach as Western forces start to return home.

The attack left 27 dead including police, civilians and attackers, officials said. Eleven civilians were killed, more than half of them children, said US Marine Corps Gen John Allen. Five Afghan police officers also died, he said. A total of 11 insurgents were also killed.

US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said around six or seven rockets had hit inside the embassy perimeter during the early hours of the attack, launched on Tuesday afternoon, but said the range meant they had not posed a serious threat. “They were firing from at least 800 meters away and with an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). That’s harassment. That’s not an attack,” he said in an interview transcript handed out to journalists in Kabul.

The insurgents had holed up in an underconstruction multi-storey building and launched their attack firing rockets at the US and other embassies and the headquarters of NATO-led foreign forces.

Suicide bombers also targeted police buildings in other parts of the city, but the embassy district assault was the most spectacular.

Afghan security forces backed by NATO and Afghan attack helicopters fought floor-by-floor in the 13-storey building, which the six insurgents appeared to have booby trapped.

They had arrived dressed in burqas, the traditional face-veiling robe worn by Afghan women, in a car packed with explosives, and entered the high-rise after shooting a security guard.

“As our country is traditional and Islamic, there is a special respect for women and the enemies exploited this to get to the building,” Kabul Police Chief Ayoub Salangi said.
The gunmen then hid from helicopters and government and foreign troops in lift shafts and a maze of small rooms.

The group were armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47 assault rifles and suicide bomb vests, a Taliban spokesman said, but the time they held out prompted speculation they had hidden weapons in the building.

“There was almost certainly either a breakdown in security among the Afghans with responsibility for Kabul or an intelligence failure,” said Andrew Exum, fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Explosions were interspersed with gunfire all afternoon on Tuesday and continued past dawn on Wednesday. Residents of nearby apartments stayed indoors and tried to comfort panicked children, as helicopters flew low overhead. “It would go silent for 30 to 35 minutes and then there were explosions and the sound of heavy machine guns,” one witness said . There may be unexploded artillery in parts of the city, NATO warned.
Ambassador Crocker said he believed the Haqqani network was behind the attack, and also blamed them for a truck bomb that injured 77 US troops on September 10.