Image by The U.S. Army via FlickrTaliban suicide attackers disguised as police officers targeted a government compound in south-west Afghanistan today, sparking battles that killed a provincial council member and three policemen. Nine attackers also died.
The Taliban said it carried out the attack because the council was trying to turn Afghans against the militants. The council was meeting in a compound in Zaranj, capital of Nimroz province, which borders Iran.
Militants have carried out a series of co-ordinated suicide assaults on government compounds across the country. Some insurgents fled into Nimroz province earlier this year when international and Afghan troops conducted an offensive to rout the Taliban in neighbouring Helmand province. Nimroz is also a major trafficking route for the opium trade.
Today's assault began when nine suicide bombers wearing Afghan national police uniforms tried to get into the provincial governor's compound, where the Nimroz council was meeting, said provincial police chief General Abdul Jabar Pardeli. But police became suspicious and fired on them, detonating several of the bombers' explosives.
The battle lasted more than an hour, according to provincial governor Gulam Dastagar Azad. A female council member, Gul Maki Wakhali, three Afghan policemen who were guarding the compound and nine Taliban insurgents were killed, he said. Ten police were wounded.
One suicide attacker successfully detonated his bomb, Pardeli said. Police had also found a car packed with explosives near the compound, which houses a court, the governor's offices and a guest house.
"It was very heavy fighting. Very bad conditions," said Sadeq Chakhansori, a member of the Afghan parliament who was in Nimroz for a meeting. "There was one-on-one fighting."
In other violence, the interior ministry reported three explosions today that targeted the vehicles of private development companies in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Zabul. The ministry said one person was killed and 11 wounded.
Attacks on US contractors, construction companies and aid organisations have been rising as the international community pushes for faster development in Afghanistan as a priority in its strategy to counter the insurgency.
In western Herat province floodwaters coursed through several villages while residents slept early today, killing at least 15 people and washing away homes, said Najibullah Najibi, a spokesman for the Afghan army in western Afghanistan.
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