UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations demanded to know Friday why it took an hour for Afghan police and NATO troops to respond to a Taliban attack on a guest house filled with U.N. staff in Kabul.
Afghan authorities denied that they were slow to respond, and a NATO spokesman said the Afghans did not ask the international force for support.
As guests cowered inside their rooms or jumped from windows, two U.N. security officers fought with three militants who attacked the guest house at dawn Wednesday, carrying grenades and automatic weapons and wearing suicide vests. Fire consumed part of the building during the two-hour siege, which left 11 people dead including the attackers.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said two Afghan security guards outside the house where 34 U.N. staffers lived appear to have been killed immediately in the assault, which apparently targeted the U.N. for its role in the Nov. 7 presidential runoff election. The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, views the balloting as a Western plot.
At that point, two U.N. security officers living in the house took up the job of protecting their fellow U.N. staff.
"For at least an hour, and perhaps more, those two security officers held off the attackers. They fought through the corridors of the building and from the rooftop," Ban told the U.N. General Assembly. "They held off the attackers long enough for their colleagues to escape, armed only with pistols against assailants carrying automatic weapons and grenades and wearing suicide vests."
Ban said that "the U.N. security team repeatedly called for help from both Afghanistan government forces and other international partners." He said "initial reports suggest that it was approximately an hour, if not longer, before Afghan police or others arrived on the scene."
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said the U.N. was demanding an explanation.
The secretary-general told the U.N. Security Council that "we were a little taken aback by the fact that our security officers died or were wounded fighting, by themselves, a battle," Montas said.
"We cannot assess yet why. And we have asked, of course, to find out. We have to find out why," Montas said.
Jamil Jumbish, a top Interior Ministry official who is chief of Afghanistan's criminal investigation police, denied that Afghan authorities were slow to respond.
He said Afghan police were stationed in the district and reached the site of the attack "very quickly." He said reinforcements were also sent in shortly afterward. Jumbish, however, did not specify how long it took police to respond to the attack.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels that Afghan forces did not ask NATO's ISAF force for support.
"Of course we make all efforts to support our international partners at all times," Appathurai said. "In this case, ISAF mobilized both medical and quick reaction forces."
The deadly assault pointed to one of the deficiencies in plans for protecting sensitive targets in Kabul.
Afghan authorities are the designated first responders in attacks against civilians in the capital, and the better-equipped and better-trained NATO force is supposed to intervene only if asked by the Afghans.
Although the guest house was full of United Nations employees, the building itself was a privately owned Afghan business.
Ban spoke first at a town hall meeting at U.N. headquarters where hundreds of staff members stood in silent tribute to the U.N. staff members killed in the attack — including two U.N. security officers, Louis Maxwell from Miami and Laurance Mefful of Ghana. Nine other U.N. staff members were injured.
Mefful's widow, Emma, brought tears to many eyes when she spoke with great composure about her husband of 30 years whose life was guided by two principles: "loving his lord and loving his neighbor."
"It was, therefore, not surprising about his heroic actions at a time of crisis, especially doing something to save the lives of others," she said. "He was just a selfless person and would do anything to make others comfortable — and that's what he did. We are very proud of him."
Maxwell's mother, Sandra Maxwell, told The Associated Press that her son was an outstanding trumpet player at Miami Central High School — so good that he was offered a full music scholarship to Florida A & M University, but he decided instead to enlist in the Navy and then joined the United Nations, where he was a close protection officer.
"I'm told from U.N. top officials that because of my son, 17 people are alive," she said, crying. "He was brave. He fought until he couldn't fight anymore. He paid the ultimate price. He was a hero."
Maxwell, 27, is survived by his parents, sister and two children, aged 7 years and 11 months.
In his remarks, the secretary-general went out of his way to commend the U.N. guards.
"I am so grateful for their courage and bravery," Ban said.
His comments echoed those of John Christopher "Chris" Turner of Kansas City, Missouri, who said he also fended off the militants while some guests hid in a back room.
"The real hero here was not me," Turner told NBC on Thursday. "It was the U.N. guards that died fighting in the front of the building. I was merely the last line of defense for the 24 people hiding in the washroom."
Ban identified two of the three other U.N. employees who died in the attack as election workers — Lydia Wonwene of Liberia and Jossie Esto of the Philippines. He said the third worked for the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF.
The secretary-general warned Thursday that the U.N. has become a "soft target" and urgently appealed for more security personnel to protect U.N. staff and facilities in Afghanistan, especially in the run-up to the Nov. 7 presidential runoff election.
Ban said the United Nations will be consolidating U.N. staff in Kabul and around the country, and told Friday's meeting that some personnel not engaged in "critical duties" may be relocated in the coming weeks.
U.N. staff in the capital are currently scattered in 93 guest houses, U.N. officials said.
The secretary-general said staff who survived the attack have been flown out of the country. He said movement of all U.N. staff "remains restricted" and that staff "not directly engaged in critical, election-related duties are being encouraged to take leave" during the run-up to the election and the period immediately thereafter.
As of Oct. 15, there were 6,700 people working for the U.N. mission and all U.N. funds and programs in Afghanistan, including 1,100 international staff and 5,600 local staff, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
That includes more than 300 election staff from the U.N. Development Program whose work in support of the runoff is largely completed though some will be assisting the international observers during the runoff, UNDP spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
"U.N. staff continue to help Afghans prepare for the run-off election," Ban said. "That includes pre-positioning election materials in the provinces."
Ban appealed to the General Assembly for an additional $50 million to beef up security at vulnerable U.N. locations, $25 million to assist the U.N. Department of Safety and Security meet new demands "in an increasingly dangerous world," and $10 million for a new fund to help victims and their families.
As he left the town hall meeting, Guy Candusso, one of the representatives on the U.N. Staff Union, said more resources are critical, but not enough.
Unless additional funds are coupled with a systemwide security policy encompassing all U.N. staff that is enforced by the secretary-general, "the result will be further deaths," he warned.
Associated Press Writers Robert H. Reid in Kabul, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, and Tamara Lush in Miami contributed to this report.