The BBC has  reported that a Taliban attack on a British compound in Kabul has killed at least a dozen people.  Attack on British Council compound in Kabul kills 12 .  What’s particularly disturbing is the coordinated nature of the attack, which involved at least three elements:  one force which staged a diversionary attack nearby, a suicide car bomb  attack which breached the compound perimeter wall, and a third force of armed attackers, which entered through the breach created by the car bomb.

Gunmen have stormed the British Council office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing at least 12 people and taking over the compound for hours.  A suicide car bomb destroyed the compound wall and a number of heavily armed men forced their way inside.  After several hours of gunfire and blasts, the UK’s ambassador in Kabul said all the gunmen had been killed.   The Taliban said the attack marked the anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence from the UK in 1919.   There has been some confusion about the number of people killed in the Kabul attacks.

At least eight Afghan policemen and a New Zealand special forces soldier were killed, officials from both countries said. Three security guards also died, the Afghan interior ministry told the BBC.   UK Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the “cowardly attack”, saying he had spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to thank him for the role the country’s special forces had played in defending the compound.

PhotoBlog has an outstanding set of images taken immediately after the attack.  

Here’s additional detail from the BBC report:

Friday’s strike was a three-phase attack, intelligence sources told the BBC. First, a suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest at a square in western Kabul where police were guarding a key intersection shortly after 05:30 (01:30 GMT). Ten minutes later, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the front gate of the British Council, destroying a wall, which allowed the attackers into the compound.  A number of Afghan policemen were feared to have been buried in the rubble.
As the area was evacuated, local shopkeepers said as many as nine insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and AK-47s started firing as they ran towards the British Council building.  Afghan and Nepalese guards fought the attackers until help arrived in the form of Afghan commandos and New Zealand special forces.  A lone injured gunman managed to hold out in an area protected by armoured doors and glass before was he killed eight hours after the attack began, Afghan intelligence officials said.

Several aspects of this attack are worth noting.

• The coordination and sophistication of the attacks suggest  substantial training – and possibly sophisticated facilities, such as live-fire ranges (shooting houses).
• If the Taliban are increasing the sophistication and variety of their attacks and techniques, we’re going to have up our game as well – but by being smarter, more flexible and make as many allies as possible.
• The increased sophistication of the attacks – using diversions – suggests the use of some sort of communications equipment perhaps mobile phones – which might provide investigative and intelligence leads.
• The use of a car bomb not merely as an end in itself, but to breach a perimeter, underscores the difficulty of defending a static position against a sophisticated attack by skilled attackers.