Taliban attack on British Compound Kabul continues for many hours

Kabul : The Taliban attack on British Compound marking the anniversary of Afghanistan's independence from Britain, 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 after that several heavily armed insurgents rushed out of a side street shouting, firing in the air and racing towards the open gate. Afghan officials believed the number of attackers was between two and four.

Afghan foreign Minister said that all British nationals caught up in the attack are now safe.

The fighting continued between the attackers and Afghan security forces along with British Troops, six hours after the beginning of the attack. 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.

After an initial period when the fighting appeared to have ended, a volley of machine-gun fire sent British soldiers ducking behind their armoured vehicles.

The interior ministry said it thought 12 people had been injured and eight killed, all of them either police or private security guards as the injured rushed to different hospitals and the building still not cleared, estimates of the number killed and wounded varied wildly.

The heavily fortified compound is usually protected by a mixed force of Afghan and Nepali guards.

British soldiers rushed to the UK government's cultural and educational mission, joining Afghan police and soldiers and the New Zealand SAS, but more than six hours after the attack at least one insurgent was thought to be at large in the compound.

The area hosts not only the British Council, but also two of the country's top politicians – the leader of the opposition and one of President Hamid Karzai's vice-presidents.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman reached by phone, said the target was both the British Council and a guesthouse that he claimed, it would appear incorrectly, was located in the same compound.

"We attacked the buildings because we want to remind the British that we won our independence from them before and we will do it again," he said.

The Afghanistan celebrates the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan war in 1919, when the country won the right to pursue a foreign policy independent of the British Raj.