Three Suicidal People Storm Government Building in Afghanistan, 10 Dead

[웃 910]

Suicide Attack at Government Building in Afghanistan Kills 7

KABUL, Afghanistan — Three suicide attackers stormed a government building in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, setting off a seven-hour gunfight with Afghan soldiers and police officers that left 10 people dead, including the attackers, the Afghan police said.

Three police officers and four government workers were killed in the attack on the building, of the Telecommunications Ministry, in Sharana, the capital of Paktika Province, said Dawlat Khan Zadran, the provincial chief of police. Another police officer and two government workers were wounded, he said.

Paktika Province, where the Taliban have been active, sits along the Pakistan border.

The attackers, wearing suicide vests and carrying rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles, entered the building around 9 a.m., the police chief said.

They shot one guard at the entrance and another guard returned fire, killing one of the attackers. The other two attackers sought cover in the upper floors of the three-story building, where they exchanged fire with Afghan Army soldiers and police officers who surrounded the ministry.

Eventually two explosions were heard. It was not clear whether the attackers had set off their suicide vests or the explosions were caused by the rocket-propelled grenades.

The attack left the building, which is in the center of the city, badly damaged.

Members of United States Special Forces were present at the standoff, the provincial police chief said. A spokesman for coalition forces in Afghanistan confirmed that coalition personnel were present in support of the Afghan response, but the spokesman said that according to policy, he could not say whether they were from Special Forces.

In a separate attack, four Afghan military personnel were killed and 10 others were wounded when a military base in Kunar Province came under mortar and rocket attack, said Wasifullah Wasifi, a spokesman for the provincial government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/world/asia/suicide-attack-at-government-building-in-afghanistan-kills-7.html?hp