US embassy attack raises doubts over Kabul police

The top US diplomat in Afghanistan said yesterday that a 20-hour battle with insurgents that left 11 civilians dead was "not a very big deal" as he sought to downplay the extent of the chaos brought to the heart of Kabul.

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Ryan Crocker blamed the Pakistan-based Haqqani network for the raid, which ended only after sorties by helicopter gunships against insurgent positions and raids on a 12-storey building they used as a hideout.

Mr Crocker argued that "half a dozen rocket-propelled grenade rounds from 800 metres [away from the US Embassy], that isn't Tet [offensive] – that's harassment. If that's the best they can do, I think it's actually a statement of their weakness."

The sophisticated raid saw 11 militants smuggle large quantities of ammunition and weapons past police checkpoints and has fanned speculation in Kabul that it must have been carried out with the collusion of security forces. It has increased scepticism that Afghan forces are ready to take responsibility for their country from Nato.

The militants appear to have planned the assault for weeks, officials say, posing as labourers to stockpile weapons and munitions in the half-constructed shopping centre they occupied. It had views of Nato headquarters, the US embassy and other high-profile targets and was less than a mile from the diplomatic enclave and presidential palace.

On the day of the attack the insurgents arrived in a van, disguised in burkas, and killed a police commander and a secret service official who were stationed outside the building.

Once inside they held off a police rapid reaction force for almost eight hours. A team of New Zealand special forces and an Afghan counter-terrorism squad had to fight their way through the maze of lift shafts and annexes on each floor.

Nato and Afghan helicopter gunships fired into the building but the attack did not end until yesterday morning when the last two militants were killed on the 10th floor.

Heavily armed insurgents who launched a similar attack in June on a hotel in Kabul were later revealed by Afghanistan's spy service to have had help from the police.

"There was almost certainly either a breakdown in security among the Afghans with responsibility for Kabul or an intelligence failure," said Andrew Exum, a fellow at the Centre for a New American Security.

The siege was an embarrassment for Nato and its Afghan partners. Diplomatic sources in Kabul ridiculed the statement by the Nato chief, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, that "the enemies of Afghanistan have not succeeded and... will not derail transition."

"What will it take before anyone admits that things may need a rethink?" asked one senior diplomat.