Afghan Govt Compound 'Under Rocket Attack'

[tekisui]

Source: AFP

KABUL — Taliban militants armed with guns and rockets attacked a provincial government and police headquarters near the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, 10 days before nationwide elections, an official said.

One Afghan policeman was killed in the attack on the compounds in Pul-i-Alam, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kabul, but other casualties could not be confirmed immediately, government officials said.

"At 12:30 the governor's building came under rocket attack from close range," Din Mohammad Darwish, spokesman for Logar provincial government, told AFP by telephone. Gunfire could be heard in the background.

The attackers were holed up in a multi-storey building from where they were exchanging fire with security forces, he said.

Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP that one policeman was killed. "Joint security forces have surrounded the attackers and soon they will be either arrested or killed," he said.

Bashary rejected a Taliban claim that suicide attackers had entered the governor's office and said that foreign troops were helping Afghan forces repel the attack. NATO and US troops could not immediately confirm involvement.

"Taliban are armed with RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), AKs and PK machine guns and they keep opening fire at the governor's office and police headquarters," Darwish told AFP.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahed, said that six suicide attackers had entered the building and 21 people had been killed.

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[tekisui]

1. Taliban launch raids south of Kabul - TV, residents

LOGAR, Afghanistan, August 10 (Reuters) - Taliban guerrillas attacked government buildings south of the capital Kabul on Monday, residents and local television said, the latest in a series of brazen assaults in a growing insurgency.

Few details were immediately available about the attacks in Logar, about an hour's drive south of Kabul, but a spokeswoman for U.S. and NATO-led troops in the capital said they were investigating reports of a Taliban assault in the province.

The attacks came less than two weeks before presidential and provincial council elections on Aug. 20 and were the latest episode in a dramatic escalation of pre-poll violence.

Private Afghan television station Tolo, quoting an unidentified Logar official, said Afghan security forces had been locked in gun battles with insurgents for several hours and that Taliban fighters had also used "heavy fire".

Logar's police chief refused to speak when contacted by Reuters from Kabul. Residents said the attacks targeted the provincial governor's office and other government buildings.

"We are in our own grief and you are asking questions," police chief Ghulam Mustafa Mohseni said by telephone from Logar.


http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSISL474985