Attack on Afghan governor claims 22
Source: Agencies |
August 15, 2011, Monday
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Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 22 people in an attack on a governor's compound in central Afghanistan during a security meeting yesterday, officials said.
Witnesses reported hearing at least five explosions as Afghan security forces inside the compound of Parwan governor Abdul Basir Salangi fought back.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said 22 people were killed and 34 wounded. The dead included 16 government employees and six police.
Parwan is about an hour's drive northwest of the capital, Kabul. Just over a week ago, a rocket-propelled grenade fired by the Taliban brought down a NATO helicopter in another central Afghan province near Kabul, killing 30 US troops and eight Afghans in the worst single incident for foreign forces in 10 years of war.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Parwan attack. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamist group, said the assault began when a suicide car bomber detonated explosives at the gate of the compound.
He said five other bombers entered the compound, where he claimed US officials were taking part in a meeting.
Mujahid said: "Many people were killed, including Americans, but we still do not have the exact information."
The Taliban often exaggerate incidents involving Afghan government targets or foreign troops.
The wreckage of what appeared to have been the car bomb lay outside the gate of the compound as Afghan police and soldiers swarmed around the scene.
Sharafuddin Rahimi, an adviser to the Parwan police chief, said a meeting involving the police chief, the governor "and some foreign advisers" was under way when the attack was launched but said the attackers did not reach the meeting room.
He said one of the police chief's bodyguards was among those killed, as well as women and children.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul confirmed several of its members were attending a meeting in Salangi's office but said none was injured.
In a statement from the presidential palace, Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack. ISAF, which provided air cover during the battle, also condemned the raid as "despicable."
Insurgents, often from the Taliban, have launched a series of attacks against government targets over the past year, often in the east of the country near the porous border with Pakistan.
Witnesses reported hearing at least five explosions as Afghan security forces inside the compound of Parwan governor Abdul Basir Salangi fought back.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said 22 people were killed and 34 wounded. The dead included 16 government employees and six police.
Parwan is about an hour's drive northwest of the capital, Kabul. Just over a week ago, a rocket-propelled grenade fired by the Taliban brought down a NATO helicopter in another central Afghan province near Kabul, killing 30 US troops and eight Afghans in the worst single incident for foreign forces in 10 years of war.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Parwan attack. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamist group, said the assault began when a suicide car bomber detonated explosives at the gate of the compound.
He said five other bombers entered the compound, where he claimed US officials were taking part in a meeting.
Mujahid said: "Many people were killed, including Americans, but we still do not have the exact information."
The Taliban often exaggerate incidents involving Afghan government targets or foreign troops.
The wreckage of what appeared to have been the car bomb lay outside the gate of the compound as Afghan police and soldiers swarmed around the scene.
Sharafuddin Rahimi, an adviser to the Parwan police chief, said a meeting involving the police chief, the governor "and some foreign advisers" was under way when the attack was launched but said the attackers did not reach the meeting room.
He said one of the police chief's bodyguards was among those killed, as well as women and children.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul confirmed several of its members were attending a meeting in Salangi's office but said none was injured.
In a statement from the presidential palace, Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack. ISAF, which provided air cover during the battle, also condemned the raid as "despicable."
Insurgents, often from the Taliban, have launched a series of attacks against government targets over the past year, often in the east of the country near the porous border with Pakistan.
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