Afghanistan Update: The Latest on the Taliban Attacks in Kabul

Soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force fire back at Taliban attackers in Kabul today

Earlier Report: Taliban Attack NATO HQ, US Embassy, Afghan Intelligence Agency

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It began very early in the afternoon.

The details are sketchy at best at this moment. What’s clear is that insurgents linked to the Haqqani Network first started targeting several areas of the Afghan capital Kabul with suicide bombers and then fired several rockets in yet other areas. As confusing as it sounds right now, I have been told by an Interior Ministry source --- who wishes to remain anonymous --- that it was just as confusing for the security forces.

What seems clear is that the smaller attacks were all a distraction to make the police forget about the real target: the US Embassy. Half a dozen gunmen somehow made their way into a building that is still under construction with enough ammunition to hole themselves up and fight Afghan police and international forces for more than six hours. Fighting continues late this evening.

Among the cache of the terrorists’ ammunition were rocket-propelled grenades, which they liberally used to spray the US Embassy as well as surrounding buildings that house TV stations, International Security Assistance Force headquarters, and other embassies. If the motive of terrorists is to terrorize, then this was one of the most successful attacks in recent memory.

At least six people have been killed and 16 injured. Four insurgents have also died in these attacks and two are still holed up in a high-rise a very short distance from the US Embassy.  I spoke to several eye-witnesses and other civilians in the area who described the noise of the continuous gunfire and RPG mortars as reminiscent of the Civil War in the 1990s when Kabul was ravaged by infighting among warlords.

One eye-witness in Wazir Akbar Khan, an upper-class neighbourhood close to the Embassy, described the attack as hellish. “I was in my office and suddenly chaos. I hear gunfire. I hear explosions. We just locked the doors up and are still praying for this to end,” he said.

Another told me that he had to walk home from the Afghanistan Radio and Television building of Afghanistan, also located close to the Embassy, because no vehicles were availbe. Other people were locked up in their offices for fear of more suicide bombers, rocket attacks or stray bullets from the insurgents holed up in the high-rise.