Kabul Still In Chaos As Taliban Attacks Key Facilities
Taliban gunmen armed with suicide vests and heavy weaponry have lauched coordinated attacks in Kabul, targeting NATO’s headquarters, the US embassy and the Afghan intelligence agency days after the anniversary of September 11th.
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.
Police have surrounded the occupied building, calling in air support to end a siege carried out gunmen resisting inside the building.
“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,” reported al Jazeera’s Abdullah Shahood from Kabul.
Image/CIA
At least one policeman has been killed and two injured in the attacks so far.
Only an hour after the attack near the US embassy, heavy explosions were heard in other parts of the city: 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.
He said he could not comment on how many attackers there were while the operation was going on.
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.
