Suicide bomb squad hits Afghan city

Seven suicide bombers tried to storm state targets in an Afghan city yesterday, killing one civilian and wounding others in the third Taliban commando raid in a week, authorities said.

Part of an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency, the attacks underscored the vulnerability of the Western-backed government less than four weeks before landmark elections and raised concerns for the security of the polls.

Officials said most of the attackers blew themselves up before reaching their targets in different parts of the eastern city of Khost, close to the border with Pakistan, where Islamist militants have carved out safe havens.

"All of the bombers who had suicide vests on their bodies were identified and fired at by our brave police before they reached their targets," it said.

Three men tried to set off their bombs in front of the town's police headquarters while another was approaching the rear of the facility, it said.

Nearby, one suicide attacker tried to storm a police post, another approached a police rapid reaction unit and a seventh tried to hit a bank in the city centre, the interior ministry said. It was unclear which attackers were shot dead by security forces and how many actually managed to detonate their explosive vests.

Hamidullah Qalandarzai, Khost provincial governor, said the attackers were dressed as members of an Afghan militia that works with foreign forces.

"The bodies of six suicide bombers have been recovered. There could be more bombers... One civilian was killed," he told AFP.

Defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said some of the attackers were armed with machine guns and rocket launchers and exchanged fire with security forces before detonating their explosive-laden vests.

"We have three military people wounded and 14 civilians," he said. A doctor at Khost hospital said the wounded included an eight-year-old girl.

At least one of the bombers detonated a car rigged with explosives in front of the police headquarters, but that blast caused no casualties.

Zabihullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, called AFP from an undisclosed location and said the insurgent Islamist group was behind the attacks.

"Thirteen of our suicide bombers attacked government buildings in Khost," Mujahed said. Taliban members are known to exaggerate their claims.

Khost is the third city to be hit by a commando-style Taliban strike in a week, with five people killed last Tuesday when eight suicide bombers, some dressed as women and with guns, tried to storm official property in two Afghan cities.

Afghan authorities said later that police arrested seven would-be suicide bombers, who would have inflicted mayhem in further coordinated strikes. Khost has become one of the most dangerous cities in Afghanistan over the past six months and the scene of repeated deadly attacks.