Americans will not be cowed and will continue to work in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday after Taliban gunmen attacked the US embassy in Kabul.

Officials at the Pentagon and key lawmakers meanwhile insisted the US mission would not be deterred by the assault, and said it would have no impact on US plans for a gradual drawdown of its forces by 2014.

"The civilians who serve are dedicated, brave men and women, committed to advancing our mission. They will not be intimidated by this kind of cowardly attack," Clinton said, adding there were no casualties among US personnel at the embassy.

"We will take all necessary steps not only to ensure the safety of our people but to secure the area and to ensure that those who perpetrated this attack are dealt with."

Taliban gunmen armed with suicide bombs and heavy weaponry launched coordinated attacks in Kabul, targeting NATO's headquarters, the US embassy and the Afghan intelligence agency.

Around three hours after the attack began, gunbattles were still ongoing.

Six people were killed -- four police officers and two civilians -- and 15 others most of them civilians were wounded, the interior ministry told AFP. Six insurgents were also killed.

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 Islamists' regime after the 9/11 attacks 10 years ago.

New CIA chief David Petraeus, the former US commander in Afghanistan, told lawmakers a "handful of individuals" -- possibly wearing suicide vests -- were able "to move into a building a few hundred meters from the embassy."

"All embassy members have been accounted for," the retired four-star general said, adding "four Afghan citizens were injured" from rocket-propelled grenade fire as they had lined up waiting for US visas.

Pentagon press secretary George Little played down the attack as have had little effect.

"This was far from a spectacular attack," said Little, adding that the walls of the US embassy had not been "breached."

The insurgents "will not prevail. Our resolve is unwavering," he told reporters. "Our commitment remains strong and the enemy will fail."

Little said the attack would not alter US and NATO plans to gradually hand over control to Afghan security forces, which he said were increasingly capable.

"There's absolutely no change in our commitment to transition," Little said.

Key US senators said the attack showed worrisome sophistication, but also said it should not lead to changes in the US war-fighting strategy.

"I don't think one attack is going to affect the strategic position, which is basically working. You can't let one attack do that or else the attackers succeed," said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat.

"It certainly has proved that we've got a lot more to do," noted Senator John McCain, the top Republican on Levin's committee and a critic of President Barack Obama's plan to pull US forces out of the strife-torn country by 2014.

"They believe that the best way to erode American support for our effort there is these kinds of spectacular, headline-grabbing attacks," said McCain.

Despite the attack, Little said recent months have exposed "a less effective insurgency" that "can't effect more widespread offensives" while US-led forces have maintained control of areas that were once dominated by the Taliban.

But last month was the deadliest yet for US forces in the ten-year old war, with 71 American troops killed, according to a Pentagon tally.

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.

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