Multiple Explosions, Gunfire in coordinated Attack on Kabul

[Haris]

Militants attack government and
Nato buildings in Kabul

Explosions rock Afghan capital as militants strike at
government buildings, US embassy and Nato military base


The US embassy in Kabul. Nearby roads were blocked after the explosions.

Explosions and gunfire rattled Kabul this morning after militants armed with
rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests attacked government
buildings, the US embassy, and Nato's main military base in the Afghan
capital.

Witnesses said that some of the attackers were firing from positions in a
tall, half-complete building behind the embassy.

A series of explosions could be heard in the affluent Wazir Akbar Khan area,
where many embassies and foreign aid agencies reside.

A Taliban spokesman said several attackers with rocket-propelled
grenades, AK-47s and suicide vests had taken up positions to attack
government buildings.

"The primary targets of the attackers are the intelligence agency building
and a ministry," Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by phone.

At least six loud explosions were heard, and the headquarters of the
Nato-led International Security Assistance Force was also reported to have
come under attack.

Television pictures from near the attack showed a burned out minivan, a
bicycle lying in the middle of the street and people running away.
Police and other security officials blocked roads around the US embassy
and other diplomatic missions. "There are several armed attackers in Abdul
Haq Square," Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's Crime Investigation Unit
told the Associated Press.

At least four civilians have been wounded, according to Nadira Hayat
Burhani, the deputy head of the health ministry. BBC correspondent
Quentin Somerville tweeted that a rocket had landed 100 metres from the
BBC office in Wazir Akbar Khan that could have been shot over the
embassy.

He said US marines were on the roof of the embassy and sirens could be
heard coming from ISAF.

The city has been on a heightened security alert in recent weeks following
a series of attacks including one on the British Council last month.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since US-backed Afghan forces
toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high levels of foreign
troop deaths and record civilian casualties.


Militants attack government and Nato buildings in Kabul | World news | The Guardian






Live Updates: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog...y-under-attack

[یاسمینه]

Friends of mine from Kabul texted me this morning. They were exactly there. I hope they are safe... Civilians always suffer in such attacks. Pffffff

[unknownprince]

US embassy in Kabul under attack

US embassy in Kabul under attack
PressTV - US embassy in Kabul under attack
Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:29AM GM


Heavy explosions and gunfire have been reported near US embassy and NATO offices in Afghan capital, Kabul.


Taliban militants have fired rockets towards the US embassy and the NATO headquarters in the capital, Afghan police confirmed.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying several Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades have taken up positions in a tall building in Kabul, near the embassy district to attack government buildings, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

"Today at one o'clock at Kabul's Abdul Haq roundabout a massive suicide attack on local and foreign intelligence facilities is ongoing," said the Taliban spokesman.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the attack, but the US embassy did not comment on the offensive.

"There is an ongoing attack in the centre of Kabul," ISAF spokesman said.

There are no reports of possible casualties in the gun battle as of yet.

AO/MGH

[Masha]

wasnt there an attack like this near wardak, were i think 70 U.S. soldiers got injured?

[unknownprince]

that was a few days ago, and a couple threads down.

[Masha]

Oh..lol well i heard about it today hahaha im slow

[unknownprince]

Taliban Battle Police in Attack Near U.S. Embassy in Kabul

Taliban Battle Police in Attack Near U.S. Embassy in Kabul - Businessweek
September 13, 2011, 10:38 AM EDT

By Eltaf Najafizada and James Rupert
(Updates with policeman killed and background on recent attacks from fifth paragraph.)
Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Taliban guerrilla fighters detonated bombs and battled Afghan police and troops for hours in the Afghan war’s most sustained combat near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
“An attack has occurred in the area of the U.S. Embassy, including RPG and small-arms fire,” embassy spokeswoman Kerri Hannan said in a statement. No embassy personnel were injured, she said.
The attackers set off bombs early in the afternoon at a main intersection in New Mikrorayon, a neighborhood of concrete- walled apartment buildings, and rushed into an empty building under renovation that overlooks the U.S. Embassy, about 800 meters to the west, and beyond it the headquarters compound of the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, Tolo TV and the Pajhwok news agency reported.
“Terrorists have taken over a building under construction,” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said by phone. “Police have shot dead two of them, but three or four are still fighting from the top of the building and our operation is continuing,” he said.
The attack came three weeks after Taliban killed eight people in an assault on the British Council cultural center, northwest of the city center. One police officer was killed in today’s fight, and police shot dead suicide bombers who tried to attack their posts in two other parts of the city, Seddiqi said.
Complex Attack
Although rockets have been fired in the embassy’s direction during the decade-old U.S. war against the Taliban, no previous attack as complex as today’s fighting has targeted the heavily defended facility. While Hannan referred to RPG, or rocket- propelled grenade, fire, there was no confirmation that the embassy or ISAF headquarters had been hit.
The rattle of gunfire continued into the evening, five hours after the battle began.
The Taliban guerrilla movement launched the attack against “local and foreign intelligence facilities,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said in a text message. The Kabul-based Pajhwok cited witnesses saying the gunmen were firing at a compound in the neighborhood that belongs to the National Security Directorate, the main government intelligence agency.
Insurgents’ Momentum
The attack came two days after the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, Ryan Crocker, had presided over a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in which the ISAF commander, General John Allen, said “we have reversed the momentum of the insurgents. On this sacred day of remembrance, I can say we are on the path of success in Afghanistan.”
The Taliban have conducted a series of complex attacks, combining bombings and commando-style assaults by suicide squads, to deepen the sense of insecurity in the capital. The deadliest such strike in recent months, a five-hour commando raid on the Hotel Intercontinental, killed 12 people on June 29.
President Hamid Karzai noted that Afghan forces, rather than international troops, were responding to today’s attack, a statement from his office said. Such assaults “cannot stop the process” of shifting security responsibilities from international to Afghan forces, Karzai said, “but rather embolden our people’s determination in taking the responsibility for their country’s own affairs.”
Embassy Protection
More than 1,600 personnel of the U.S. mission in the Afghan capital are protected by a Kabul Embassy Security Force of nearly 400 guards, according to a September 2010 report by the State Department’s inspector general’s office. That staff is spread across three locations in the city, including the main embassy compound, the report said.
The U.S. closed its Kabul embassy for 12 years before and during the rule of the Taliban regime. Since the State Department reopened it in December 2001, following the Taliban’s ouster, the embassy has been rebuilt and expanded.
Its sprawling complex of office buildings, a high-rise apartment block and security bunkers has taken over what were adjacent empty fields, and the road leading to it is closed by roadblocks manned by soldiers and guards.
Despite the new construction, the embassy suffers “overburdened life support systems,” including housing, security and transport, for a burgeoning staff, according to a separate declassified State Department report prepared last year.
The embassy’s U.S. staff nearly tripled with what the report called “a massive civilian plus up to support the large increases in assistance programs” to Afghanistan under President Barack Obama, leaving many staffers living in pre- fabricated dormitories.
--Editors: Mark Williams, Sam Nagarajan
To contact the reporter on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net

[unknownprince]

Gunmen attack US Embassy in Kabul - YouTube

[unknownprince]

Taliban attack US embassy, NATO in Afghan capital

[13.09.2011 20:33]


Taliban attack US embassy, NATO in Afghan capital | Afghanistan | TrendTaliban insurgents launched a series of coordinated attacks in the Afghan capital on Tuesday, targeting the US embassy, NATO offices and police headquarters, officials said, reported dpa.

"Two civilians and four Afghan forces were killed. Twelve others civilians were injured in today's multiple attacks," Kabul Police Chief Ayoub Salangi said.

Taliban insurgents attacked the US embassy and the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from a building under construction.

The fighting was ongoing late Tuesday. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said there was at least one or two more fighters still holed up in the building next to the embassy premises, resisting Afghan and foreign forces.

The Taliban also attacked an Afghan border police headquarters in western Kabul.

"The US embassy can confirm an attack has occurred in the area of the embassy, including RPG and small arms fire," US spokeswoman Kerri Hannan said.

"We can confirm there are no casualties at this time among embassy personnel."

One bomber tried to get inside a border police headquarters in the west of the city, but was killed by Afghan forces, Mohammad Zahir, the Kabul police crime branch chief, said.

Another bomber was also shot dead by police in the Kart-e-Sey area of the city, near the parliament and the Russian embassy.

One more attacker was also killed on the airport road by Afghan forces, Zahir said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"Our comrades have attacked several government, diplomatic, intelligence and US embassy buildings in Kabul," Zabiullah Mujahid said by phone from an undisclosed location.

"They are using different types of weapons, including suicide vests, machine guns, a new weapon called "82" which is shot like an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade)."

Mujahid confirmed other attacks against Afghan security installations as well.

Witnesses said the attackers had taken over a 13-storey building under construction in the Abdul Haq Square, next to ISAF and the embassy.

They said rocket-propelled grenades were fired, targeting the streets and US embassy.

An ISAF official confirmed they were under attack.

Afghan national security forces and coalition forces immediately responded to the attack, the statement said, adding coalition forces provided air support.

Sirens wailed through the city. Fighter helicopters were roaming the sky over Kabul.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the incursion, calling it terrorist attacks by the enemy to affect the process of transition of security responsibilities to Afghan government.

"The attacks cannot stop the process (transition) from taking place and can not affect, but rather embolden, our people9s determination in taking the responsibility for their country9s own affairs," Karzai said in a statement.

Karzai also praised the "rapid reaction by the brave security personnel" in controlling the situation without allowing terrorists to inflict further human and material losses.

"Their timely reaction demonstrates their improved ability," he said.

The European Union chief in Afghanistan also condemned the attacks on civilians.

[unknownprince]

Fighting goes on near Kabul US embassy

Fighting goes on near Kabul US embassy
PressTV - Fighting goes on near Kabul US embassy

Wed Sep 14, 2011 12:48AM GMT
Reddit
Deadly fighting that has erupted between Taliban militants and security forces near the US embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul is still underway, Press TV reports.