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.