KHOST, Afghanistan (AFP) – Would-be suicide bombers dressed in burqas and armed with rifles tried to storm an Afghan government-owned building on Monday but were killed in a shoot-out with police, officials said.
The thwarted attack took place in the city of Khost, part of Afghanistan’s troubled eastern region bordering Pakistan.
Afghan security forces had followed the pair of attackers clad in burqas to an abandoned government-owned building close to government offices, said General Mohammad Asrar, army general in the province.
“Police surrounded the house and shot both attackers — one of them detonated explosives strapped to his body during the attack and wounded four policemen,” Asrar told AFP.
An exchange of fire with security forces lasted for over two hours, said another army general, Mohammad Nawab.
One militant blew himself up as troops riddled him with bullets in the hideout, Nawab told AFP from near the scene.
The head of the provincial health directorate, Amir Badshah Rahmadzai Mangal, said the province’s main hospital had received four wounded after the attack.
Afghanistan is gripped by an insurgency that has grown with each passing year since the US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime in 2001.
Rebels increasingly use suicide bombers armed with guns in attacks in major cities including the heavily-fortified capital, Kabul.
On Sunday, a roadside bomb blew up a car in the southwestern province of Badghis killing 10 civilians, the interior ministry said.
Another civilian died in a separate bomb blast in the same region, it added.
The first bomb went off as civilians drove over the device in the Muqur district on Sunday, the ministry said.
“The mine was planted by the enemies of Afghanistan,” the statement said without specifying a particular group.
The Taliban is the biggest militant group engaged in the insurgency, aimed at forcing out Western troops and toppling the US-backed Afghan government.
Taliban militants make wide use of crude bombs planted on roadsides.
The devices are the main cause of military casualties, according to Afghan and foreign military commanders. There are about 120,000 US-led and NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.
