Taliban kills six in Afghanistan attacks

SUSPECTED Taliban militants armed with bombs, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launched near-simultaneous assaults yesterday on Afghan and US facilities in two eastern cities, killing six Afghan police and intelligence officers.

The attacks in Gardez and Jalalabad may have been aimed at relieving pressure on Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan – the focus of US and British operations against the hard-line Islamic militants. A quick response by Afghan police and soldiers prevented higher casualties. Eight insurgents were killed and one was captured in the attacks, officials said, adding that none got away.

Nevertheless, the assaults showed the Taliban are capable of mounting complex attacks in different parts of the country, stretching the capabilities of US and allied forces locked in the bloodiest fighting of the Afghan war. Militants, some of them wearing explosive belts and disguised in women’s burqa robes, launched the attacks in late morning, storming the governor’s compound, the intelligence department and the police department in Gardez and the US-run airfield in Jalalabad, about 144 kilometres to the northeast.

In Gardez, three intelligence officials were killed when a rocket exploded inside the intelligence department building. Three policemen were killed when one of the attackers blew himself up in front of a Gardez police station, according to deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Dastagir, adding that police shot and killed another would-be bomber before he could detonate his explosives.

Four other attackers were shot and killed at the police station and the governor’s compound, Dastagir said. At least two bombers were wearing burqas, presumably to conceal the explosives, officials said. Bits of the blue burqas could be seen on the bloodstained sidewalk and hanging from nearby trees hours after the attack. At nearly the same time, three militants tried to attack the US base at Jalalabad. US and Afghan troops killed two of the attackers and captured a third, according to reports.

In western Afghanistan yesterday, police in Nimroz province detained five Afghans suspected of planning suicide attacks, according to Afghan officials.

The attacks in Gardez began just as tribal elders and government officials finished a meeting at the governor’s compound to discuss security measures planned for the August 20 presidential election, deputy governor Abdul Rahman Mangal said. It was unclear if the attacks were timed to kill those at the meeting.

Attackers fired a rocket at the governor’s headquarters, but there were no casualties.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attacks. He said 15 militants – all in suicide vests – took part in the Gardez attacks, but officials said they believed all the assailants were killed.

Taliban fighters have launched several complex attacks during the past year in Kabul and Kandahar and yesterday’s attacks could have been aimed at diverting resources from the southern province of Helmand, where US Marines and British soldiers are battling the Taliban for control of the centre of the country’s lucrative opium poppy trade.

Earlier, a British soldier was killed in Helmand and a US soldier was also killed.