Kabul, Sept 14: The 20-hour insurgent attack in the heart of Kabul ended on Wednesday morning after a final volley of helicopter gunfire, as Afghan police killed the last few assailants who had taken over a half-built downtown building to fire on the nearby US Embassy and NATO compounds.
Sediq Seddiqi, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said the operation against the assailants ended at 08.30 am local time.
At least six Afghans - four police officers and two civilians - died across the city in the coordinated attack that started on Tuesday, the Kabul police department said.
By Wednesday morning, all assailants, including at least six in the building close to the US embassy, were dead.
The assault, which included attempted suicide bombings in different parts of Kabul, raised fresh doubts about the Afghans' ability to secure their nation as US and other foreign troops begin to withdraw. No NATO or US Embassy employees were hurt in the attack.
Two or three of the assailants had held out overnight in the unfinished, 11-storey high-rise at a major traffic circle in the capital, but were killed in the final morning assault by Afghan forces, said a spokesman for the Kabul police chief.
In all, six attackers had occupied the building, he said.
NATO helicopters fired down on the building throughout the night and into the morning but ground forces were all Afghan police, said the deputy interior minister.
After the fighting ended, Afghan police standing on the roof of the building could be seen clapping in celebration.
Interior Minister Besmillah Mohammadi visited the site in the aftermath of the attacks, as onlookers nearby cheered in celebration.
"Conditions in Kabul city are back to normal and all our countrymen can go about their daily lives without any worries," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
According to Afghan and other officials, the attack began after midday on Tuesday when a car packed with insurgents was stopped at a checkpoint at Abdul Haq square, about 300 yards (meters) from the US Embassy. Some of the militants apparently detonated suicide vests as they left the car.
Others could be seen entering the partially constructed high-rise, which they used as a base for their attack.
Gunfire and explosions shook the neighbourhood for hours as insurgents fired rockets from the building.
At the same time, there was a barrage of explosions around the Wazir Akbar Khan area, which is also near the US Embassy and home to a number of other foreign missions.
It appeared likely that either weaponry had been stored inside the empty, unfinished building ahead of time or that some insurgents had entered in advance with a supply of guns and ammunition.
It was unclear how much weaponry the insurgents had.
An eyewitness said they were equipped with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and possibly a mortar. The insurgents also had an 82 mm recoilless rifle, a powerful weapon that usually fires shells designed to destroy tanks - a large weapon, heavy and difficult to carry.
Police later found a Toyota Townace minivan in the building's underground parking lot that had been rigged with explosives that was likely used to bring in the weaponry and ammunition, Stanekzai said.
Police also found burqas - the body and face-covering robe worn by many Afghan women in public - inside the van. Police said the attackers likely used them as disguises to get past police checkpoints.
Footage filmed inside the building after the fighting ended showed the bodies of two of the attackers - young men with beards wearing traditional tunics and cotton pants - near a stairwell leading up to the eighth floor.
Bullet holes could be seen on nearly every floor of the concrete structure.
Earlier on Tuesday, three other insurgents had attempted to carry out suicide attacks across Kabul and all were killed.
One was shot on the road leading from the capital to the airport, and the two others when they tried to attack Afghan police buildings in western Kabul, across the city from the embassy. A police officer was killed in one of these attacks.
The sophisticated attack was the first time insurgents have organised such a complex assault against multiple targets in separate parts of the Afghan capital.
The militants' seeming ability to strike at will in the most heavily defended part of Kabul also suggested that they may have had help from rogue elements in the Afghan security forces.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. But Kabul's deputy police chief said he thought an affiliated organisation, the Haqqani network, had carried it out on behalf of the Islamist extremist group. AP
