Taliban suicide bombers kill 13

FOUR Taliban suicide bombers disguised in army uniforms detonated a car bomb and stormed a government office in Kandahar, Afghanistan, yesterday, killing 13 people.

The multi-pronged raid mirrored an attack in Kabul in February when militants assaulted three government buildings simultaneously, killing 20.

Yesterday’s attack on Kandahar’s provincial council office killed seven civilians and six police officers, President Hamid Karzai’s office said. Ahmad Wali Karzai, the head of the council and Karzai’s brother, said the attack came during a meeting of tribal leaders.

The attack began just before noon, when a suicide bomber in a vehicle full of explosives blew himself up at the office gates, opening the way for three other attackers in Afghan army uniforms and AK-47s to storm the building, Ahmad Wali Karzai said.

A REMOTE control flying US drone yesterday attacked a hideout near the Afghan border connected to the Taliban leader who threatened to attack Washington.

Yesterday’s missile attack came a day after Pakistani Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for the raid on a police academy in the eastern city of Lahore, saying it was retaliation for US missile strikes on militant strongholds along the Afghan border.