DTN News - AFGHAN WAR NEWS: Kabul Attack - Taliban In Six-Hour Gun Battle At British Compound
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 19, 2011: At least eight Afghan police and one foreigner are believed to have been killed after the Taliban marked the anniversary of Afghanistan's independence from Britain with an elaborate, multi-phased attack on the British Council building in Kabul.
The assault on the compound in the west of the city began when a suicide car bomber detonated a vehicle at the front gate of the compound.
Witnesses in nearby shops said several heavily armed insurgents then rushed out of a side street shouting, firing in the air and racing towards to the open gate. Afghan officials believed the number of attackers was between two and four.
All British nationals affected by the attack on the British Council in Kabul are now safe, said the Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt.
Jumadin, a worker at a nearby petrol station, said the force of the initial blast was enough to throw him across the ground. "I thought I was going to die," he said.
"When the policemen rushed to the area from the police district at least three were shot dead near the building."
At midday the relatively upscale Kabul neighbourhood resembled a war zone.
Six hours after the beginning of the attack, fighting continued between the attackers and security forces, including British troops. Loud explosions and long bursts of gunfire could be heard from within the building, circling helicopters released counter-missile flares and a medical evacuation helicopter briefly landed and then departed again just 50m from the site.
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