36 killed as Afghan army storms Taliban-held buildings in Kabul

An 18-hour Taliban attack on Kabul ended today when Afghan forces stormed two buildings with air support from US-led coalition helicopters.

Thirty-six insurgents were killed after their attacks claimed the lives of eight policemen and three civilians in a series of bombings and shootings.

Shortly before 3am helicopters began flying over a building in the centre of the city from where Taliban fighters began their attack yesterday.

The building, which is under construction, overlooks the presidential palace and Western embassies. At 4.23am a cleric began calling Muslim worshippers to prayer over a loudspeaker in the area.

During the next 15 minutes, troops launched five rocket-propelled grenades into the building. More followed. Residents scrambled for cover as gunfire rained down from all directions. Red and white flashes could be seen inside the various floors of the multi-storey building. Fighting there and at another building under construction near the Afghan parliament building on the south-west side of the city ended just before 8am.

A militant arrested over the attacks on Kabul and three other Afghan cities said the Haqqani network, which has ties to the Taliban and al Qaeda, was responsible. It was the most widespread attack in the Afghan capital since an assault on the US embassy and Nato headquarters last September — an assault also blamed on the Pakistan-based Haqqani network.

The violence showed that the Taliban and their allies are far from beaten and underlined the security challenge facing government forces as US and Nato forces pull out. The majority of international combat troops are scheduled to leave by the end of 2014.

Interior minister Besmillah Mohammadi said: “The terrorists tried to harm the process of transferring security to the Afghan forces, but they are not able to do it. They want to create fear.”

Apart from Kabul, the eastern capitals of Paktia, Logar and Nangarhar provinces also came under attack as suicide bombers tried to storm a Nato base, an airport and police installations.

Militants also attacked a Nato site on the outskirts of Kabul, where a joint Greek-Turkish base came under heavy fire and forces responded with heavy-calibre machineguns.