Kabul: Three suicide attackers on Thursday blew up vehicles packed with explosives at the gates of a government compound in southern Afghanistan, the opening salvo of an hours-long fight that left at least 19 people dead, authorities said.
The trio of nearly simultaneous attacks and subsequent gun battle between other militants and Afghan security forces in Uruzgan province was the latest in an uptick of violence in the volatile south that has weakened the government's grip on the Taliban's heartland since the July 12 killing of President Hamid Karzai's powerful half brother in neighbouring Kandahar.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assaults in the provincial capital of Tarin Kot, which targeted the governor's house, police headquarters and a third office used by Matiullah Khan, a powerbroker who runs a company that provides security for NATO supply convoys.
Afghan security forces responded to the scene and NATO coalition forces provided air support as fighting continued, said US Air Force Capt Justin Brockhoff, a spokesman for the US-led coalition.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said that a total of six suicide bombers conducted the attacks.
Initial reports said seven explosions went off, but it was not clear what caused them all, provincial spokesman Milad Ahmad Mudasir said.
Khan Agha Miakhail, the director of the hospital in Tarin Kot, said the 19 killed included 10 children, a policeman and two women, and 37 other people were wounded.
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