KABUL (AFP/Reuters) - Taliban gunmen armed with suicide bombs and heavy weaponry on Tuesday launched coordinated attacks in Kabul, targeting Natos headquarters, the US embassy and the Afghan intelligence agency and killing at least six people. Around five hours after the attack began, gunbattles still raged. The Afghan government confirmed the deaths of four civilians and two policemen, plus at least six insurgents, with at least two militants still resisting after dusk. Afghan officials said attackers were hunkered down in a multi-storey building under construction that overlooks the Nato headquarters and US embassy, exchanging fire with security forces as two helicopters flew overhead. Two suicide attacks also struck police in what is usually the most heavily protected part of the capital, with a Taliban insurgency at its deadliest since US-led troops ousted the Taliban regime after the 9/11 attacks 10 years ago. Any simultaneous attacks that succeeded in hitting Nato headquarters, the US embassy and Afghan intelligence would be the Talibans most ambitious commando-style operation yet in their fight to evict the Kabul government and defeat Western troops. In any case, the attacks underscored plummeting security in Kabul, where insurgents have staged increasingly brazen commando-style raids on Western targets in recent years, most recently on the British Council last month. AFP reporters heard a string of loud blasts shortly after 1:30 pm (0900 GMT) just two days after the United States marked the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that triggered the long war in Afghanistan. The US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) works to prop up an Afghan government increasingly seen as corrupt, with troops from more than 40 countries. Its main headquarters is adjacent to the US embassy compound. Isaf HQ is under attack at the moment, a Western military official earlier confirmed as terrified residents and shopkeepers told how they dived for cover. The US embassy - one of the largest American diplomatic missions in the world, one of the most heavily protected compounds in Afghanistan and home to hundreds of diplomats - confirmed only an attack in the area. There are no casualties at this time among embassy personnel, added spokeswoman Kerri Hannan in an emailed statement, providing no further details. British Ambassador Sir William Patey confirmed the nearby US embassy had been a target. Aware of attack on US Embassy. All UK Embassy staff accounted for, Patey said on Twitter. Loud explosions were interspersed with gunfire through the early afternoon, and at least two rockets landed in the upmarket Wazir Akbar Khan district, home to the US, British and many other embassies. One hit a school bus, but it appeared to have been empty at the time of impact. Four wounded civilians had been taken to hospitals, a deputy health minister said. An Afghan interior ministry official, speaking anonymously, said four policemen and two civilians were killed. Officials said at least five civilians and three policemen were wounded. A journalist from Afghan state broadcaster RTA was shot and wounded during the standoff, an AFP reporter said. Security forces have reached the second and third floor of the multi-storey building, said police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai. Two (of the attackers) are still resisting. We hope their resistance will end soon. They have almost run out of ammunition, he added. Afghan police and soldiers attempting to approach the Abdul Haq roundabout about half a kilometre from the Nato base were retreating under a volley of mortar rounds, gunfire and explosions, an AFP reporter said. In Brussels, Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen initially said he was confident that Afghan forces, who officially control security in Kabul, could deal with the ongoing assault. We are following the events closely. We have confidence in the Afghan authorities ability to deal with this situation, Rasmussen said. We are witnessing that the Taliban try to test transition but they cant stop it. Transition is on track and it will continue, he told reporters in Brussels. President Hamid Karzai insisted the attacks would not derail the transition process but would rather embolden our peoples determination in taking the responsibility for their countrys own affairs. Afghan officials said two separate suicide attacks targeted police, one near parliament and both in the western part of the capital on Tuesday, which would suggest that up to eight attackers were involved in the Kabul assaults. Three policemen were wounded in those attacks, the interior ministry said. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to a police building killing a policeman. A second suicide bomber wounded two people when he detonated his explosives near the Habibia high school, also in the west of Kabul, the Ministry of the Interior said. A Taliban spokesman told AFP by text message that the targets were Isaf headquarters, the US embassy and Afghanistans intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and other sensitive government places. Afghan officials said four attackers wearing suicide vests and carrying guns were hunkered down in a multi-storey building under construction, exchanging fire with security forces as two helicopters flew overhead. Today at one oclock at Kabuls Abdul Haq roundabout a massive suicide attack on local and foreign intelligence facilities is ongoing, wrote Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in the text message to AFP. The Isaf headquarters in Kabul oversees the operations of the bulk of the estimated 140,000 foreign troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. I was sitting in my shop when suddenly I heard an explosion and then another one. Then there was gunfire, said Abdulbaqi, a local shopkeeper. People on the streets started running. I had to leave my shop to get to safety, he added. Cars were left on deserted streets, while open shops had been abandoned as sporadic gunfire burst out, an AFP reporter said. Officially Kabul is under the control of Afghan security forces, along with most of its surrounding province and six other parts of the country handed over by Nato-led troops in July as part of a staggered, timetabled withdrawal. But in June, Taliban militants also stormed the luxury Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, sparking a fierce battle that left at least 12 people dead. The US military has blamed some of the worst attacks on the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.