15 killed in shootout near Afghan capital

At least 15 people were killed in a shootout between Afghan police and what witnesses said was a gang of Arabs and Pakistanis, south of the capital yesterday.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the clash "bore all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda-type terrorist attack" and that security forces had wiped out a "determined, suicidal gang".

"We understand that 11 or 12 members of the gang were killed," spokesman Omar Samad said. "There were no survivors, but whether one or two got away we do not know."

Two policemen also died and a civilian was killed in crossfire in the clash at Binizar, around 15 kilometres south of the capital.

Witnesses said a gang of "Arabs and Pakistanis" had hijacked a truck from a nearby colliery and told the driver to take them to Loghar province, further south.

"They spoke Arabic and Urdu," a man taken hostage with the hijacked truck said. "One of them could hardly speak (the Afghan language) Dari."

Locally, Afghans associate "Arabs and Pakistanis" with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, remnants of which are still being sought by the US-led coalition which blames the group for the September 11 attacks in the United States. The driver of the hijacked truck, Toryally, said the gang had three or four AK-47 rifles between them.

The clash took place in an area outside the jurisdiction of the 14-nation International Security Assistance Force charged by the United Nations with helping police the capital.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has made improving security a cornerstone of dragging the country from 23 years of occupation and conflict and on the road to economic recovery.