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Taliban Attack in Kabul Tests Afghan Forces Taliban Attack U.N. Affiliate’s Compound in Kabul, Testing Afghan Security Forces
(about 1 hour later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents blasted their way into the compound of an international organization on Friday, killing at least two people, and starting a gun battle that continued into the night, Afghan officials said. KABUL, Afghanistan — In what appeared to be a concerted effort to test the capabilities of Afghan security forces in the capital, Taliban insurgents sought to penetrate the heavily fortified heart of Kabul, blasting their way into a residential compound of the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations-affiliated agency.
At least one of the attackers, who targeted the International Organization for Migration, an organization affiliated with the United Nations here, remained holed up in the heart of one of the capital’s diplomatic quarters more than six hours after the assault began. The Afghan forces managed to hold the attackers at bay, and hundreds of international agency employees in nearby compounds escaped harm. But at least two people were killed and 13 wounded, including an Italian woman, and it took more than six hours for hundreds of Afghan police officers to subdue no more than six attackers with suicide vests, guns and grenade launchers.
Seventeen people were wounded, including at least one foreigner, an Italian woman who was an employee of the United Nations affiliate, Afghan police officials said. A Nepalese Gurkha security guard stationed nearby was killed along with an Afghan police officer, according to Gen. Mohammad Zahir, the head of the Kabul police’s criminal investigation division. Explosions continued through the night. The authorities said they were from booby traps the attackers had planted in the compound.
The head of the United Nations in Kabul, Jan Kubis, condemned the attack, which he said was centered on the International Organization for Migration. All United Nations staff members have been accounted for, he said. It was the first example of what the military calls a “complex attack,” involving both gunmen and suicide bombers, in the capital since insurgents attacked the headquarters of the unarmed traffic police force in January. It took Afghan forces nine hours to bring that to an end.
The Kabul police chief, Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, said there were five attackers, and one blew himself up at the gate of the United Nations’ Compound A, the main facility for the mission’s offices and housing, in the central Shar-e-Naw neighborhood, which was near the compound for the International Organization for Migration. There have been other serious attacks in Kabul more recently, including a deadly one just a week earlier in which a suicide car bomber killed six American military advisers, but those have been single bombings, rather than extended engagements.
The four other attackers, he said, were disguised as women in burqas and had taken refuge in a house nearby. Police had killed two of them, but two were still fighting back, he said earlier Friday. “We will soon end this fight,” General Salangi said. A coalition official said the Afghan police’s Quick Reaction Force, along with other units, responded quickly and competently on Friday. “This is a high-end Afghan unit that is down there,” he said. “I’d put it against most Western SWAT teams that are out there.”
Later, police estimates revised the number of attackers to six, with one still alive and holding out late Friday. American officials have in the past expressed concern about the timidity of Afghan security forces in Kabul when faced with determined attacks from bands of insurgents, and advisers embedded with their forces have sometimes had difficulty encouraging them to move aggressively to contain attackers. That has been a focus of training.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed the intended target was a guesthouse used by the Central Intelligence Agency, which a coalition official said was not true. In April 2012, for instance, a complex attack on Parliament in Kabul went on for 18 hours before it was subdued. And the previous September, the authorities were embarrassed when it took 19 hours to clear insurgents from a building under construction, which the insurgents used to fire on the American Embassy and nearby NATO headquarters.
The first explosion, apparently the suicide vest of an attacker, was so loud that it was heard miles away, and witnesses reported hearing many more explosions from inside the compound where the insurgents were holed up, apparently because they were firing rocket-propelled grenades and were still fighting police hours later. “How could a fight prolong for so many hours, even though we have hundreds and hundreds of Afghan forces deployed?” asked Amrullah Aman, a retired Afghan general and a military analyst. “It means Afghan forces need better equipment, better training.” He also questioned how the attackers got so much ammunition, weaponry and explosives into the city center, which is a lattice of police checkpoints.
Adil Murad, 28, said he was at the Zaid Kabul restaurant across from the scene when he saw four armed men running toward the United Nations compound. He said the restaurant, owned by a friend, had security cameras and they monitored the gunmen’s progress as they vaulted over a wall of one compound. The first explosion was heard shortly later. The compound that the insurgents attacked is close to the main facility of the United Nations in Kabul, as well as guesthouses and offices used by foreigners, a post of the Afghan Public Protection Force and a hospital for the national intelligence service. The Taliban themselves claimed that the building they invaded was a Central Intelligence Agency training center, according to the insurgents’ spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, who was reached by telephone. Police officials denied that was the case.
Authorities ordered lockdowns of embassies and international facilities throughout the city, and at a United Nations compound across the street from the apparent site of the attack, workers were ordered to take refuge in blast shelters. The dead included an Afghan policeman and a Nepalese Gurkha guard, who apparently had been on the gate at the migration agency’s compound, said Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, Kabul’s police chief. All “five or six” of the attackers were killed, he said.
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the American military commander in Afghanistan, said that “prompt and effective action” by Afghan officials had saved “the lives of other innocent Afghans and members of the international community.” Another coalition official said the Afghans did not ask for coalition help in containing the attack. The attack began when one of the insurgents detonated his suicide vest to clear a path for the others to force their way into the compound. The initial blast could be heard miles away. Among the 13 wounded were three agency employees and one person working for the International Labor Organization.
Mr. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, who was reached by telephone, claimed that a squad of suicide attackers was targeting a guesthouse used by the C.I.A. “to train Afghan spies.” He said the initial blast was a suicide car bomb, which destroyed the facility’s outer wall, allowing other attackers armed with light and heavy weapons to storm inside. “We believe there are massive casualties inflicted on the C.I.A.,” he said. Jan Kubis, the top United Nations official here, expressed gratitude for the “quick actions” of the Gurkha guards as well as the Afghan police.
In 2009, insurgents invaded a United Nations guesthouse, killing 11 people; the episode prompted the agency to tighten the security of its living quarters for international staff. A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with his country’s policy, said: “From the Afghan point of view, it could have been a lot better. From the Taliban point of view, it should have been a lot worse.”

Reporting was contributed by Sangar Rahimi, Azam Ahmed and Matthew Rosenberg from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Sangar Rahimi, Azam Ahmed and Matthew Rosenberg contributed reporting.