Kandahar suicide attack kills three
Gun battle continues after car bombing near UNHCR building in third big attack on foreign targets in a few days
Four people have been killed in a suicide attack in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, according to authorities, in the third bloody assault in a few days against targets associated with foreign missions in the country. Fighting continued afterwards with armed attackers shooting at security forces from inside a building, the provincial governor's office said.
Officials said the suicide car bomb killed three civilians and a policeman near the UNHCR guesthouse and the non-governmental organisation International Relief Development. Several other insurgents rushed through and seized control of an animal clinic. Kandahar police chief General Abdul Razzaq said Nato and Afghan forces continued to exchange fire with the attackers afterwards.
The UN confirmed the blast was close to its high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) office in Kandahar. "We are aware of an explosion which took place earlier this morning in the vicinity of the UNHCR guest house," United Nations spokesman Dan McNorton said. "All our international staff are accounted for ... the incident is still ongoing. We are working through our processes to make sure all our Afghan staff are safe."
Mohammad Faisal, spokesman for the Kandahar governor's office, said three civilians and one policeman were killed. Three civilians and a Nepalese guard were wounded.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Qari Youssef saying the insurgents were targeting what he claimed was a guesthouse affiliated with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. But Unama does not operate a guesthouse in the area.
On Saturday, two British civilians were among 17 people killed in a Taliban car bomb attack on a military convoy in Kabul.
The two electricians, who have not been named, were travelling in a heavily armoured Rhino bus in the western outskirts of the Afghan capital! when th e vehicle was rammed by a Toyota Corolla believed to have been carrying 700kg of explosives.
Four US soldiers, five US civilians, a Canadian soldier, a Kosovan civilian were killed as well. Four Afghan civilians near the scene also died in the blast, which smashed windows in buildings up to half a kilometre away.
The British contractors were working for the Texas-based construction and engineering firm Fluor, which has extensive contracts with Nato forces in Afghanistan, including managing essential facilities on army bases all over the country.
One of the bodies has already been flown out of Afghanistan, a western official said, while the second was due to be flown out on Sunday after a ceremony at Bagram air field, to the north of Kabul, which was due to be attended by senior military officers and diplomats.
It is not known which project the men had been working on, but it is thought that the bus which was being escorted by other armoured vehicles had just left the counter-insurgency school run by Nato at Camp Julien in the west of the city and was heading for Camp Phoenix, a US base involved in training Afghan soldiers and policemen.
Several Nato bases in Kabul were put into lockdown after the attack, with movements around the city heavily restricted.
David Cameron offered his condolences to the families of the dead, but insisted the work of international forces would not be derailed by such attacks.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast the deadliest single ground strike against foreign forces in the last 10 years.
Saturday was an especially bloody day for Nato three Australians were also killed in the south of Afghanistan when an Afghan army officer turned his gun on his foreign colleagues.
John Allen, the US commander of Nato forces, said he was "saddened and outraged" by the attacks.
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