Kabul: A suicide car bomber and three armed militants wearing explosives vests and dressed as women attacked a United Nations compound Saturday in western Afghanistan, but Afghan security forces killed the attackers and no UN employees were harmed, officials said.
The brazen attack began when four militants drove up to the UN compound in a car laden with explosives and fired a rocket toward the entrance, said Dilawar Shah Dilawar, deputy police chief of Herat province.
The militants tried unsuccessfully to blow up the gate with the rocket so they could drive the car inside the compound, he said. When that didn't work, three of the militants got out of the car and the fourth blew up the vehicle, killing himself. The explosion destroyed the gate, allowing the three to get inside.
"The three attackers were wearing police uniforms covered with burqas," Dilawar said, referring to the long, flowing garment that many Afghan women wear in public. "All of them had suicide vests and AK-47s."
Militants sometimes wear burqas or police uniforms as a disguise. The Interior Ministry denied the attackers were wearing police uniforms.
Guards at the UN compound and Afghan policemen who responded to the site engaged in sporadic gun fights with the three attackers, who were killed by Afghan security forces. Nato forces also responded, a statement by the UN said. Two Afghan guards were wounded.
"The attack did not disrupt the United Nations activities and no United Nations personnel was injured," the statement said. It said the UN will continue its work in Herat.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the assault, and said the United Nations is conducting a full investigation, a spokesperson for Ban said in a separate statement.
