Suicide attackers kill 19 in southern Afghanistan

28 Jul 2011 12:32

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Deadliest attack in southern Afghanistan in nearly six months

* Gun battle continuing hours after attack began

* Follows string of assassinations of high-profile leaders from south (Updates toll, adds details)

By Ismail Sameem

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 28 (Reuters) - Suicide bombers armed with guns killed at least 19 people and wounded another 35 when they attacked government buildings in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province on Thursday, public health officials said.

The attack was the deadliest in the south in nearly six months, and comes shortly after the killing of a string of powerful regional leaders, including a former governor of Uruzgan who was gunned down in his home in Kabul this month.

Up to six suicide bombers stormed the provincial governor's compound and the police chief's compound in Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

Three bombers had detonated their explosives and police were engaged in a gun battle with the remaining attackers, he added.

Uruzgan is a largely rural and mountainous province north of Kandahar, to which it has many cultural and tribal links, and the Taliban have long had a presence there.

"Nineteen people have been killed," said Khan Agha Nehakhil, head of Uruzgan's health department, adding that security forces and civilians, including one journalist, were among the dead.

Another 37 people were wounded. Nehakhil had earlier given a slightly lower toll.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said six militants were involved.

Engineer Farid, head of regional state television channel, Uruzgan TV, said he had heard one blast inside the channel's offices and that two suicide bombers had entered the building, which is located around 100 metres from the governor's compound.

A reporter who worked for Pajhwok, an Afghan news agency, and for the BBC was among the dead.

"Unfortunately one hour ago we got the news that our reporter in Uruzgan, Omid Khpalwak, 25, was killed. He was in Uruzgan TV station to arrange an interview," said Danish Karokhil, chief editor for Pajhwok News Agency.

"He was trapped there for three hours and couldn't escape from the battle."

HIGH-PROFILE ASSASSINATIONS

It was the deadliest attack in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban's heartland, since a February assault on the provincial police headquarters in the city of Kandahar, that killed 19.

It comes in the wake of several high-profile assassinations and just a day after a suicide bomber killed the mayor of Kandahar city, adding to fears of instability across the south which has been the focus of intense NATO fighting.

On July 17, gunmen killed a former governor of Uruzgan and close adviser of Karzai in his home in the Afghan capital, Kabul. A lawmaker from the same province who was visiting Jan Mohammad Khan, was also killed in the attack.

That attack came only days after the killing of Ahmad Wali Karzai, a half-brother of the president and one of the most powerful and controversial men in southern Afghanistan.

More than half of all targeted killings in Afghanistan between April and June were also carried out in Kandahar, according to a U.N. report.

The assassinations have left a power vacuum in the south of the country that could weaken the president's hold on a critical area that has long been a Taliban stronghold.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high foreign troop deaths and record civilian casualties.

Insurgents have also stepped up an effective assassination campaign targeting Afghan government officials. (Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni in KABUL; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Sugita Katyal)