4 Afghan intelligence officials, 6 insurgents killed in Kabul
Six men with suicide vests attacked a National Directorate of Security (NDS) building in Kabul.
KABUL (Agencies) - At least four Afghan intelligence agents were killed and dozens of civilians were wounded Sunday when a group of Taliban militants attacked an intelligence bureau in central Afghanistan, officials said.
Six attackers armed with small arms and suicide vests attacked a National Directorate of Security (NDS) building in Maidan Shar, the capital city of Wardak province south of the capital Kabul, provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP.
"Five attackers and four intelligence officers were killed in the ensuing clash. Thirty civilians were wounded," he said.
According to AFP Taliban militants detonated a car bomb outside an Afghan intelligence office near the capital Sunday and then tried to attack it on foot with guns, officials and the insurgent group said. At least four soldiers guarding the compound were killed and six insurgents died in the assault, officials said.
Separately Sunday, Afghan officials said that an apparent NATO airstrike had killed 15 people nine of them civilians, including women and children in a remote eastern province where the Taliban are strong. NATO said 10 militants died in the strike, but that it had no reports of any civilian deaths.
Both incidents underscored the insecurity in Afghanistan as US-led foreign forces reduce their presence and hand over more responsibilities to Afghan troops. Sunday s bombing, for instance, occurred in Maidan Shahr, a city in eastern Wardak province that lies just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Kabul.
