Bombers among 9 killed in Kandahar attack

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): Four attackers and as many security guards were among nine people killed after a group of bombers stormed a UN office in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday, an official said.

A group of suicide assailants, armed with heavy and light weapons, attacked the United Nation Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office at around 6am in the second police district of Kandahar City.

The first attacker crashed his explosives-laden van into a wall of the UNHCR office, allowing three others to engage with the security guards, the provincial police chief, Brig. Gen. Abdul Razaq, told a press conference.

In order to ensure that some Nepalese guards inside the building were not harmed, police cautiously engaged the attackers and killed all of them during a five-hour clash, Gen. Razaq said.

Four Afghan guards of UNHCR and the sixth police district chief were killed and two civilians injured during the clash, he said, adding three Kalashnikovs with 30 magazines and several hand grenades were recovered.

He denied reports that three Nepalese guards had also been killed in the assault.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a police officer was among several Afghan and foreign soldiers killed.

myn/mud

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