Afghan gunbattle: Troops kill Kabul insurgents

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 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.
The US embassy said none of its staff members was among the casualties, but Nato has confirmed six International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) personnel were injured.
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 insurgents were very well stocked with weaponry. We believe they had spent three days building up a massive arsenal. This is a very exposed spot in the city and it almost defies belief that they were not spotted by the police or intelligence services as they prepared for this huge attack Commandos at Isaf headquarters say this attack is not strategic, that it does not change the war here in in any way.
But even they will acknowledge that it is very bad for the Afghan people. Keeping the confidence of the public is a counter-insurgency strategy - the need to ensure people believe in their government and believe the war is being won is vital. This kind of attack is not good for that.

Afghan forces were working their way through the multi-storey building overlooking the heavily fortified diplomatic quarter well into Wednesday, exchanging fire with the militants on the floors above.

Afghan officials then confirmed that all the attackers were dead and the fighting was over.
"Conditions in Kabul city are back to normal and all our countrymen can go about their daily lives without any worries," said an interior ministry spokesman.
US Army helicopters and an Afghan army MI-35 attack helicopter had been involved in the operation.
Intelligence officials have been going through the lower floors, gathering evidence about the way the assault was planned and carried out.
Officials said the attackers had left behind explosives and burkas in a van on the site and that each of the attacker had been carrying hand grenades, pistols and an army knife. Their suicide vests also contained ball-bearings, said the officials.

Suicide attackers
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 1km from the US embassy.
Witnesses said there were several large explosions and the insurgents entered a nearby nine-storey building under construction.

Recent Kabul attacks

• August 2011: Gunmen storm British Council HQ, killing 12 people
• June 2011: Seven people killed in gun and bomb attack at Intercontinental Hotel
• April 2011: Two soldiers killed after gunman opens fire inside defence ministry
• Jan 2011: Eight killed by suicide bomber at Kabul Finest supermarket
• Feb 2010: At least 17 people killed in gun and bomb attack on foreign guesthouse district
• Jan 2010: 12 dead in attack on government targets and shopping malls

From there, up to five militants opened fire on the embassy complex with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and possibly a mortar.

The US ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, said on Wednesday that six or seven rockets had hit the embassy building.
But he said they were fired from at least 800m away, so were being treated as "harassment rather than a direct attack" and a sign of the "weakness" of the insurgency.
"If this is the best they can do, I find both their lack of ability and capacity and the ability of Afghan forces to respond to it actually encouraging in this whole transition process," he said.
Mr Crocker said he also believed the attacks to have been carried out by the Haqqani network.
The attackers had clearly come prepared for a long fight and are thought to have spent three days accumulating weapons in the incomplete tower block.
While the fighting was going on, Frozan Hemati, a doctor who lives in the Macrorayon district, said: ''We haven't been able to sleep, especially the children. All night gunfire shook the windows and woke us up."
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.
A Taliban spokesman said the group was carrying out "a massive suicide attack on local and foreign intelligence facilities".
Haroun Mir, director of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Centre for Research and Policy Studies, said it was the first time that four groups of militants had attacked in four different places.
"This is new as previously we had one or maximum two attacks. The Haqqani network has the full support of al-Qaeda and has the capacity to execute sophisticated attacks. It is the only group with this capacity."
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, Isaf handed over responsibility for security in seven areas of Afghanistan, including two provinces.
Isaf commander Gen John Allen said the latest attack had demonstrated the Taliban's "bankrupt ideology which has been rejected by the Afghan people", Reuters reported.
Gen Allen blamed the Haqqani network for the attack, but said the Afghan security forces had "responded bravely" and that the insurgency had failed.