10 killed, 92 wounded as Taliban storm Kandahar police office

KANDAHAR (Pajhwok): At least ten people were killed and 92 others were wounded when Taliban militants detonated two car bombs and stormed a police building in the capital of southern Kandahar province on Thursday.

The Ministry of Interior in a statement said eight attackers were killed after national police personnel put up stiff residence to them. It said the dead and wounded included police and civilians.

The Kandahar Governor’s House in a statement said the assailants detonated a car suicide bomb and then tried to enter the police headquarters but faced with stiff resistance.

A second blast took place minutes apart, the governor’s house said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told Pajhwok that a total of eight attackers were involved and seven of them were killed as of 7:35pm and the remaining one would be killed soon.

He said eight civilians and two policemen were killed and 89 civilians and three police were wounded in the attack. He said the death toll could increase.

The blasts were so powerful that they were heard miles away and broke mirrors of residential areas. All roads leading to the scene have been closed and no one was allowed to go close to the area.

Several vehicles loaded with tyres and other commercial goods parked at the nearby Customs Office were torched.

The state-run Radio Television Afghanistan office in Kandahar city also sustained damages in the blasts. The area is home to a number of government offices, commercial buildings and residential homes.

Sources said 10 workers of the provincial Agriculture Department remained trapped inside their office as the gun-battle continued.

A source told Pajhwok that the attackers entered the police building from the Customs Office side. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Their spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said first a car bomb was exploded and then a number of fighters stormed the police building. He said the fighters were equipped with heavy and light weapons.

He said so far a large number of security forces and officers had suffered casualties.

Meanwhile, President Ashraf Ghani said the Taliban by continuing their crimes caused casualties to a large number of innocent countrymen in Kandahar province.

“The government of Afghanistan is pursuing the peace program in line with the decisions of the consultative loya jirga, but the Taliban with their latest barbarous attack shows they want continuity of the war and bloodshed of the innocent.”

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