| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
KHOST, Afghanistan : Armed Taliban militants wearing suicide vests stormed a building in an Afghan provincial capital on Monday, sparking a gun battle with police, officials said.
The militants seized a building near police headquarters in Gardez, capital of eastern Paktia province, at about 9:00 am (0430 GMT) and began firing at security forces as they surrounded the building, an official said.
Eastern Afghanistan is one of the worst flashpoints of violence in the Taliban-led insurgency plaguing the country and now at the worst levels since US-led troops invaded in late 2001 to oust the Taliban regime in Kabul.
Coordinated gun and suicide attacks, usually targeting Afghan government officials and security installations, have become increasingly frequent.
At least two militants were killed during Monday's incident, a spokesman for the interior ministry told AFP in the capital Kabul.
One was shot while trying to run at the security forces, but his explosives-packed vest detonated.
"The explosives he had on his body exploded after our security forces opened fired at him," the ministry's Zemarai Bashary said, adding that a second militant was also shot dead later.
A gun battle was under way, he added.
A local government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the incident.
"There is ongoing fighting between security forces and the terrorists," the official said, speaking from Gardez by telephone.
A purported Taliban spokesman, speaking from an unknown location, said it was a Taliban operation.
The Taliban are waging an insurgency against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and the 113,000 US and NATO troops in the country.
US President Barack Obama and NATO allies have pledged an extra 37,000 troops, which should take the overall foreign deployment to 150,000.
- AFP/vm
|
