Militants Attack U.S. Embassy in Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan — In the most direct assault since the American Embassy opened here nine years ago,gucci outlet heavily armed insurgents wearing suicide vests put the embassy and the nearby NATO headquarters in their cross hairs, showing the Taliban’s ability to enter even the most heavily fortified districts in the country.
The nearly five-hour siege was one of several attacks that hit the capital on Tuesday afternoon. American civilians fled to their bunkers — a rocket penetrated the embassy compound — and Afghan government offices and the capital’s center emptied as the insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and NATO and Afghan troops returned fire.
The attacks confirmed the ability of the Taliban, with a small number of men, to use guerrilla tactics to terrify the population, dominate the media and overshadow the West’s assertions that the Afghan government and security forces will soon be able to handle the insurgency on their own.
As the gunfire pounded, loudspeakers at nearby embassies kept repeating: “This is not a drill, this is not a drill. If you are in a secure location, do not move.”
While the numbers killed were low— as has been the case in similar complex attacks staged by the Taliban in Kandahar and Kabul — its purpose appeared to be to cast doubt about the government’s ability to protect its people.
At least six people were killed, including four policemen, according to the Kabul Provincial Police and the Ministry of the Interior. There were also 19 people wounded, including four Afghans who were struck at the American Embassy. Late in the evening, the Interior Ministry was still counting the number of dead insurgents, but it appeared that at least seven had entered the city and five had taken positions in a 14-story building that was under construction and had clear sight lines to its targets.
The assault from the building was all the more dismaying because it suggested the involvement of many people who allowed heavily armed men to enter the city and get through the cordon that surrounds the capital’s center.
Although large areas of rural Afghanistan have long been thought to be heavily infiltrated by the Taliban, the nation’s capital, Kabul, is widely viewed as relatively safe because of the international presence and the large numbers of Afghan security and intelligence forces based there. Tuesday’s attack, which began around 1:15 p.m., was the latest in a string of attacks that have chipped away at a tenuous sense of security in the capital. In August, militants killed eight people in an attack on a British cultural center, and in June, nine suicide bombers breached layers of security to attack the hillside Intercontinental Hotel.
“The nature and scale of today’s attack clearly proves that the terrorists received assistance and guidance from some security officials within the government who are their sympathizers,” said Mohammed Naim Hamidzai Lalai, chairman of Parliament’s Internal Security Committee.
“Otherwise it would be impossible for the planners and masterminds of the attack to stage such a sophisticated and complex attack, in this extremely well-guarded location, without the complicity from insiders.”
A Western official said the attack made the talk of a peace deal with Taliban seem “absurd.”
“This doesn’t show reconciliation, it does show determination,” the official said. “If the Taliban can do this with five guys perched in a building and they can alternate it with these vehicle-borne I.E.D.’s” — car bombs — “which they have been doing more of, well, then this won’t be the last time.”
However, President Hamid Karzai vowed that the attack would not deter his government from taking control of security from Western forces on the current schedule, which envisions full Afghan control by the end of 2014.
“The attacks cannot stop the process of transition from taking place and cannot affect it, but rather will embolden our people’s determination in taking the responsibility for their country’s own affairs,” Mr. Karzai said.
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