Afghanistan: Taliban Attack NATO HQ, US Embassy, Afghan Intelligence Agency
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 16:14Video of the building from where the Taliban launched rocket attacks
Later Report: The Latest on the Taliban Attacks in Kabul
Taliban gunmen armed with suicide vests and heavy weaponry have launched co-ordinated attacks in Kabul, targeting NATO's headquarters, the US embassy, and the Afghan intelligence agency.
Heavy gunfire continued to be heard on Tuesday as Afghan forces battled to clear a building in the city's diplomatic quarter which had been taken over by heavily armed fighters. Rockets have reportedly been fired at the US and other embassies in the area.
At least four policemen and two civilians have been killed and 22 others injured, according to AFP.
Police have surrounded the occupied building, calling in air support to end a siege carried out by gunmen resisting inside the building.
Sediq Seddiqi, spokesman to the Afghan Ministry of Interior, said three of the Taliban fighters in the building had been killed and two were continuing to resist.
NATO has confirmed that they are providing Afghan forces ground and air support in the operation.
Al Jazeera's Abdullah Shahood, reporting from Kabul, said: "We understand from Afghan officials that they have cleared three stories of the building and two stories remain to be cleared. But we can still hear gunfire at the moment."
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, condemned the attacks and and said it could not not hamper the security transition from NATO to Afghan forces.
"The attacks cannot stop the process (transition) from taking place and cannot affect, but rather embolden our people's determination in taking the responsibility for their country's own affairs," Karzai said in a statement.
Only an hour after the attack near the US embassy, heavy explosions were heard in other parts of the city.
Just a few kilometres away in the west of Kabul, a suicide bomber detonated himself near a police building, killing one policeman.
A second suicide bomber wounded two people when he detonated himself near Habibia high school also in the west of the city.
"The primary targets of the attackers are the intelligence agency building and a ministry," Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the Taliban, told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday from an undisclosed location.
The US embassy in Kabul says no personnel have been reported injured.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) headquarters in Kabul was also one of the targets in the ongoing Taliban attack in the centre of the city, a Western military source told the AFP new agency .
Several Taliban attackers armed with rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47s and suicide vests were taking part in the attack, Mujahid added.
Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's Crime Investigation Unit, said: "There has been an explosion and gunfire, there are several armed attackers in Abdul Haq Square. There could be suicide bombers but it is unclear at the moment."
Police and other security officials blocked roads around the US embassy and other diplomatic missions.
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