6 May 2010 / REUTERS, HEART
Taliban insurgents, including at least two suicide bombers, attacked the governor’s compound in the southwestern Afghan province of Nimroz on Wednesday, officials said.
Mohammad Mustafa Rasoli, a senior intelligence official in the province, said two suicide bombers had blown themselves up outside the compound and a gunbattle between the insurgents and security forces was still going on. He did not have details about casualties. The Taliban have launched a series of attacks in the Afghan south in recent weeks, targeting government buildings and officials. The attacks come only weeks ahead of a major military offensive in southern Kandahar province. A Taliban spokesman confirmed the group was behind the Nimroz attack. “Seven bombers and two gunmen are involved in the attack. Two of the bombers have set off their explosives and the others are locked in a gunbattle,” said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi. He said fighters had killed at least 20 members of the Afghan security forces and were trying to seize the governor’s building. The Taliban often inflate the numbers of casualties its fighters inflict on foreign and Afghan forces. Nimroz is a largely desert province that shares a long border with Iran and lies next to Helmand, Afghanistan’s most violent province.
