Kabul: In the most direct assault since the American Embassy opened here nine years ago, 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.
The Afghan security forces handled the response to the attack with little visible support from NATO troops, other than some surveillance about two hours into the attack, when Blackhawk helicopters circled the building where the assailants were holed up, but did not fire.
Soon after, Afghan forces flew their own attack helicopters to the building, strafing it and appearing to hit their target consistently. Late into the night, Afghan forces were still clearing it, floor by floor, concerned that a bomber or two might still be hiding there, said Gen. Mohammed Ayoub Salangi, police chief of Kabul Province. However, police officers on the ground, while trying to control the chaos, also added to the whirlwind of gunfire filling the air, at times hoisting their rifles over walls and hedge banks and firing toward the building from blocks away without aiming.
The attack came less than two months after Afghan forces assumed formal responsibility for security in the capital, one of several corners of the country where security was officially handed over in July.
Kerri Hannan, a spokeswoman for the American Embassy, said no embassy personnel had been hurt.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying the Taliban had sent an unspecified number of assailants to attack two of the most prominent symbols of the American military and diplomatic presence here. He said the assailants were also firing at Afghan government targets.
At least one explosive projectile landed at the offices of the Afghan Tolo television channel, and another exploded near a minibus, though no injuries were reported. The Iranian English-language television channel PressTV also reported that its Kabul office was under attack and that several people were hurt, but offered no other details.
In the west of the city, a suicide bomber set off an explosive vest in an attack that wounded one civilian and killed a policeman. Afghan officials said they thwarted at least two other attempted suicide bombers, shooting and killing both.
The streets surrounding the site of the attack, normally choked with the traffic of minibuses, bicycles and Toyotas, were deserted on Monday afternoon of all but security forces and people racing for cover.
"We don't know what is their enmity or who is their enemy," said Fatima, 25, a doctor who was running away from the Ministry of Public Health at the height of the assault. "We don't know who they are trying to kill."
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