Suicide squad kills 13 Afghans Kabul and Islamabad seal agreement

Washington/Kandahar: General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said yesterday that militant groups in Afghanistan are growing in strength but will be fought "relentlessly and aggressively" by bolstered American troops.

The comments were made on a day when four suicide attackers stormed provincial council offices in Afghanistan's city of Kandahar, killing 13 people including senior government officials.

The attackers, who witnesses said wore Afghan military uniform, were also killed - two of them shot dead by security forces, the Interior Ministry said.

The Taliban movement, behind a rising tide of bombings and assassinations, claimed responsibility for the attack, said a spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi.

The attackers sped up to the council offices, which are in a heavily secured area of the city, in a four-wheel drive vehicle, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

"Three of the suicide attackers got out and the fourth one stayed inside and detonated the vehicle," Bashary said. "The three other suicide bombers got into the council yard and started opening fire at the civilians," he said.

Six policemen and seven civilians were killed, he said. Sixteen people were injured, including some councillors, local authorities said.

The dead included provincial education director Mohammad Anwar, deputy provincial health director Abdulhay Razmal, and five bodyguards, said council chief Ahmad Wali Karzai.

The civic officials had been attending a development seminar, said the official, who is a brother of President Hamid Karzai.

Agha Lalai, an influential councillor who was attending the seminar, said "a big explosion" blew open the gate of the compound.

President Karzai condemned the attack in a statement from Turkey, where he was holding talks with Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari on ways to boost cooperation against Islamist extremism plaguing both countries. "Afghan people are the victims of terror... They are struggling for peace and stability and such attacks by terrorists cannot deter their aim."