THE heroic actions of one man may have stopped the United Nations fleeing Afghanistan altogether, The Scotsman has learned.
A civilian bodyguard armed with only an assault rifle and a walkie talkie fought the Taleban for more than 90 minutes when they stormed his guesthouse in Kabul last week, killing five UN staff and four Afghan guards.
If it wasn't for Louis Maxwell
's bravery, UN security chiefs are convinced the death toll would have been two or three times worse – enough to prompt a complete withdrawal from the country. "Hero is an understatement," said his friend and colleague Jamie Farrell. "What he did was above and beyond the call of duty, absolutely."
Wounded and low on ammunition the 27-year-old father-of-two from Florida leapt off a second storey balcony and was seconds away from safety when he heard a woman screaming.
Witnesses said he ran back inside the burning building to help her. It was the last time he was seen alive.
Three insurgents died in the 28 October attack, bringing the death toll to 12.
At least 24 UN workers were led to safety through the back of the compound while Mr Maxwell mounted his defence.
"This man engaged numerous attackers inside his guesthouse for a considerable period," said UN security specialist Paul O'Hanlon. "He conserved his ammunition. He was lucid. He escaped himself when he thought the job was done, then he went back in and died.
"If he hadn't done his job the attackers would have pursued them and we'd have had a line of bodies."
In 2003 the UN pulled out of Iraq after 21 staff were killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad.
The former US serviceman, known as Max, phoned his partner Oliver Smolcic seconds after the first shots rang out at 5:45am. They were talking on VHF radios until 7:20am – just moments before he died.
"He said, 'Ollie, I'm shot, I'm shot, I'm shot'," and then I lost him," Mr Smolcic said yesterday. "I asked him to click twice if he was badly hit, but I couldn't hear anything."
Maxwell's son Malik left a moving tribute on his Facebook page. "I miss you daddy," he wrote. "I do not know what I would do without you. I have been looking at your pictures. I love you so much. I wish you were still here with us. I love you always."
The United Nations now believes at least three Taleban suicide attackers, and possibly a fourth, were driven up to the gates of the Bekhtar Guesthouse in a convoy of white Toyota Landcruisers bearing government number plates.
"They dropped the guys off and drove away," said Mr O'Hanlon. The attackers, dressed in police uniforms, chatted with the four Afghan security guards who let them into the compound where more than 30 UN staff were asleep. Only once they were safely inside did they open fire.
Mr Smolcic, Mr Hanlon and Mr Farrell were on the scene in minutes. "I saw a silhouette run across the street into the guesthouse. Then someone started shooting at me," Mr Smolcic said. "I called Max again. He was already on the rooftop. He said the attackers were everywhere."
More than an hour after the attack started a squad of presidential guards arrived on the scene, but they reportedly left without helping.
Meanwhile, Afghan troops on top of a tower block more than 120 metres away began firing indiscriminately at the smouldering compound. UN staff fear Louis Maxwell may have been wounded by friendly fire.
But they also heaped praise on an Afghan general in charge of protecting the UN, who ran through the main gates in the compound, twice while the Taleban were still at large, and rescued three people.
"As we came forward we saw General Rahimi running out with two people," Mr Hanlon said. "He disappeared and then ten minutes later he reappeared with someone else."
