Nato HQ and embassies targets of suicide bomb and gun attacks

At least two attackers were killed and five people were wounded.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the assault in the Afghan capital. He said a group of suicide bombers launched an attack on the Nato headquarters, the parliament building across town and a number of diplomatic residences in Kabul.

The attacks were the first in the heavily guarded capital since a shooting inside the Interior Ministry in February in which a ministry employee turned a gun on Nato advisers and shot two soldiers dead.

More than 10 explosions rocked the capital yesterday and heavy gunfire shook the city for more than an hour after the initial blast. There were also attacks in three other eastern cities at about the same time. Details were sketchy and the fighting was still going on. The Taliban spokesman did not provide any information about attacks outside the capital.

Last week, Mujahid said in a statement that Taliban planners were preparing to launch a spring offensive. In a statement posted on a Taliban website on Thursday, he said Nato officials should have patience, because Taliban commanders would wait for the “appropriate time” to launch attacks.

The first explosions in Kabul struck the central Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood, which is home to a number of embassies, including that of the US, as well as a Nato base. Gunfire erupted soon after the blasts, forcing people in the street to quickly take cover. Smoke rose from buildings in the neighbourhood as sirens wailed.

US diplomats said in a statement there were attacks “in the vicinity of the US Embassy”.

Militants who had staked out positions in a tall building were firing rockets in different directions, according to a reporter at the scene. It was not immediately clear what they were targeting, but shots appeared to be focusing on the nearby British Embassy.

At about the same time, residents reported a blast near the parliament building across town. A police officer in the area, Mohammad Assan, said there was an attack involving shooting near parliament.

On the outskirts of the city, militants also targeted a Nato base known as Camp Warehouse with mortar fire, according to a reporter at the scene. Turkish and Greek forces at the base were responding with machine gun fire.

A police officer said a suicide bomber had occupied a building near the base and was shooting towards the Kabul Military Training Centre on Jalalabad Road.

The other assaults were in the capital cities of the provinces of Logar, Paktia and Nangarhar.

In the Logar province capital of Pul-e-Alam, provincial police chief Ghulam Shakhi said militants had entered a building that belongs to the education department, which is near a building used by the Afghan intelligence service, and a gunbattle was under way.

In Paktia province, militants were shooting sporadically from a building across from a university in the provincial capital of Gardez. Nato said it was aware of reports of an explosion near a coalition installation near Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar, but could provide no details .

The UK Foreign Office confirmed an attack was in progress in Kabul but did not give details. A spokeswoman said: “We are in close contact with embassy staff.”

The German Foreign Ministry said there was some damage in the grounds of the German Embassy, but it did not appear that anyone had been hurt.

Meanwhile, Taliban militants attacked a prison in north-west Pakistan, freeing at least 380 prisoners including at least 20 insurgents described by police as “very dangerous”.

The fighters, armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, attacked the prison before dawn in the city of Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They fought with guards for around two hours before freeing the prisoners, including Adnan Rashid, allegedly involved in an assassination attempt against former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf.