2 killed in assault of Afghan compound

KABUL - Taliban gunmen backed by a suicide car bomber attacked an international aid group’s compound Friday, killing two guards and setting off an hours-long street battle with police in the heart of Kabul.

The attack, the second in the city this week, also left four International Organization for Migration workers wounded, including an Italian woman badly burned by a grenade. Thirteen police officers were wounded, and all six attackers died in the assault, authorities said.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the assault on a guest house used by the organization in an upscale neighborhood of Kabul.

At the chaotic scene of the siege, dozens of Afghan police officers took cover behind blast walls and rushed through a thick cloud of smoke made by the bomb. At least one wounded officer was seen being helped away by his comrades.

The insurgents have unleashed a wave of bombings and assassinations around the country, testing Afghan security forces’ ability to respond with reduced help from international forces, who are preparing to withdraw by the end of 2014.

A Nepalese guard and an Afghan police officer providing security to the compound died in the assault as well as all of the attackers, said Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi.

The attackers stormed into the building with grenade launchers after blasting open the compound’s gate with the car bomb, Salangi said. He said police officers were able to evacuate the guest house with none of the residents killed.

From the time the initial blast shook much of the city in the late afternoon until past nightfall, fighting was still going on in the upscale Shahr-i-Now neighborhood, home to several international groups’ fortified compounds as well as the headquarters of the Afghan Public Protection Force and a hospital run by the National Directorate for Security.

Security forces were able to enter the building in late evening, and the siege was over by 10:30 p.m. Afghan time, according to Sediq Sediqi, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior.

“Fortunately, it is finished. The last attacker has been killed by the police,” Sediqi said. Local television reporters demanded to know how a car bomber and five attackers could enter the capital, but Sediqi portrayed the battle as a victory for security forces.

“We were successful because we prevented civilian casualties,” he said.

“Wild terrorists attacked … the IOM,” police official Zemarai Bashari said. “Our forces are fighting the enemy with courage and honesty.” Information for this article was contributed by Amir Shah and John Heilprin of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 7 on 05/25/2013

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