KABUL: An Afghan official says four intelligence agency employees have been wounded in an attack at the agency’s office in southern Kandahar.
Hasib Sediqi, spokesman for the National Directorate for Security, says a suicide truck bomber detonated his explosives near the agency’s compound early Sunday. He says security guards at the compound’s entrance shot dead two other insurgents involved in the attack.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi claimed the attack in an email. He also claimed responsibility for an ongoing attack in northwestern Badghis province in which insurgents attacked government offices in Jawand district.
Mirwais Mirzakwal, a spokesman for the provincial governor there, says Taliban gunmen are dug in near the district’s main bazaar.
Meanwhile, A district in north-western Afghanistan fell into Taliban control from fleeing soldiers, officials confirmed Sunday.
Taliban militants attacked the Jawand district of Badghis province overnight and seized the governor’s office and police headquarters, said Bahauddin Qadis, head of the provincial council.
“The insurgents took the district when the security forces fled the area after a three-hour long battle,” Qadis said, without providing details.
Another provincial government official who requested anonymity said the district governor and other district authorities had fled.
He said the rebels had also seized a “great number of arms and ammunition.”
The Taliban also confirmed their fighters had captured the centre of the district.
In the southern province of Kandahar, three Taliban fighters were killed after they attacked the compound of the provincial intelligence agency.
“The incident took place in Kandahar city early morning, when the first attacker detonated an explosives-laden truck at the entrance of the building,” said Hasseb Sediqqi, spokesman for the National Directorate of Security.
“Two other attackers were killed in by intelligence forces.”
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, in which government officials were injured.
— Agencies
