At least 25 people
died in Kabul during Tuesday's 20-hour-long attack by insurgents on the US
embassy, Nato headquarters and police buildings.
The US ambassador to
Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, dismissed the attack as "harassment" and
"not a very big deal".
The dead included 11
civilians, among them children, along with at least four police and 10
insurgents.
The Nato commander
in Kabul, Gen John Allen, admitted the insurgents had scored a propaganda
victory.
"The attacks
beginning yesterday afternoon were designed to derail transition... the
insurgent attack didn't succeed, it failed," he told a news conference in
Kabul.
"I'll grant
that they did get an IO [Information Operations] win on this," he added.
International forces
have begun handing over responsibility for security to the Afghan authorities
in a transition which is scheduled for completion in 2014.
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Nato helicopters
were also called in to target an unfinished high-rise building overlooking the
diplomatic quarter, where the attackers had holed up.
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"This really is
not a very big deal," said Ambassador Crocker. About six or seven rockets
landed within the embassy perimeter fence, he said.
"That isn't
[the] Tet [offensive], that's harassment," he went on.
The 1968 Tet
offensive was the turning point in the Vietnam war which eventually led to the
pull-out of US forces.
Tuesday's attack,
the most complex in Kabul to date, comes as US and other foreign forces begin
to withdraw their troops.
During the attack,
at least six gunmen took over a multi-storey building overlooking Kabul's
heavily protected diplomatic quarter.
It 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 (0.6 mile) from the US
embassy.
Witnesses said there
were several large explosions and the insurgents entered a nearby nine-storey
building under construction.
From there, several
militants opened fire on the embassy complex with machine guns,
rocket-propelled grenades and possibly a mortar.
In the end, Afghan
forces had to work their way up through the building, exchanging fire with all
the militants on the floors above until the last of the gunmen was killed, 20
hours later.
Suicide bombers were
also sent to other targets in the city. One was heading for the airport when he
was killed by Afghan security forces.
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The assault, the
most complex insurgency attack in Kabul to date, finally came to an end after
nearly 20 hours
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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 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.
US Army helicopters
and an Afghan army MI-35 attack helicopter were 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 told the
BBC 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.
"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," Mr Crocker said.
The ambassador said
he also believed the attacks to have been carried out by the Haqqani network.
The attackers are
believed to have spent a number of days accumulating weapons in the unfinished
tower block. The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says officials think some of them
may have been working as labourers on the building site for several weeks.
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In the western part
of Kabul, at least two suicide bombers detonated their bombs targeting local
police.
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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.
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Afghan police and
security services responded, but gun battles continued to rage in the city
overnight.
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At
the scene
Quentin Sommerville
BBC News, Kabul
I am inside the
building where six of the insurgents took cover for most of the 20 hours. It
was only cleared a few hours ago. All around me on the ground there are shell
casings, a lot of the walls have been heavily shot up and there is blood on the
floors.
The really striking
thing about climbing inside the building is the views you get from the top of
it. Straight in front, I can see the US embassy - a very clear line of sight,
just behind the Isaf headquarters.
The insurgents were
well planned and well supplied, but they also knew this was perhaps one of the
best spots in Kabul from which to mount this assault, and be able to attack all
those high-value targets.
Timeline
of Kabul attacks
0940 GMT, 13 September: Shots fired as attack
starts in Abdul Haq Square.
Suicide attacker is
killed by police before "reaching a target near Kabul airport"
1000 GMT: Suicide attack in Abdul Haq Square as
insurgents fire rockets into embassy district and Wazir Akbar Khan.
The heavily-armed
attackers hole up in upper floors of an under-construction multi-storey
building overlooking the square. Sporadic gunfire and explosions can be heard
throughout the day as Afghan security officials try to clear building.
1200 GMT: In the Darulaman Road area, in the
west of the city, two suicide attackers detonate explosives outside a police
station.
1900 GMT: In the Abdul Haq Square building,
another suicide attacker detonates his suicide vest.
0500 GMT, 14 September: Final insurgent in the
building is killed.
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