By IANS,
Kabul : A brazen terror attack in Kabul targeting the US embassy and the headquarters of the NATO-led security force ended Wednesday after an assault that lasted over 20 hours and left 14 people dead.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said: “The operation began Tuesday and concluded at 8.30 a.m. Wednesday. Fourteen people – six terrorists, four police personnel and four civilians – had been killed.”
Seventeen people — nine policemen and eight civilians — were injured.
“All the terrorists have been killed and normalcy has returned,” Xinhua quoted Sediqi as saying.
The rebels mounted the well-coordinated attack in Kabul Tuesday, with multiple blasts rocking the Afghan capital. The militants, wearing suicide vests, targeted the US embassy and triggered a fierce gunfight.
The overnight siege saw security forces surrounding the militants’ positions in the under-construction building and trying to eliminate them. The gunmen had resumed firing Wednesday morning.
The tall building that was occupied by the rebels is in the Char Rahi Abdul Haq area, close to the US embassy and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters.
Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid told CNN that they targeted “the US embassy, governmental organisations and other foreign organisations”.
President Hamid Karzai has termed the multiple attacks as a cowardly act and strongly condemned it.
“The enemy does everything they can to affect the process of transition of security responsibilities of the Afghan government. The attack cannot stop the process of transition but rather embolden our people’s determination in taking over the security responsibility of their country,” President Karzai said.
The Taliban were driven from power in 2001 and have since carried out a string of terror strikes across the country.
On Aug 19, seven people, including two foreign nationals, were killed and five others were injured in bomb and gun attacks at the British Council in Kabul as the country celebrated its 92nd Independence Day.
Violence across Afghanistan has increased since US President Barack Obama announced in June plans to withdraw 10,000 American troops from the country this year.
US soldiers will begin returning home in line with the deadline set by Obama in December 2009, when he authorised a surge of 33,000 troops to break the Taliban’s control in Afghanistan.
All the troops sent in the surge will be pulled out by next summer, Obama has said.
The US has been the largest contributor to the 48-nation ISAF, which currently has more than 130,000 troops in Afghanistan.