Xinhua, September 8, 2013

Taliban-led suicide attack kills 10, wounds 120 in Afghan town

The statement said 120 civilians sustained injuries and several houses and shops around had been damaged during the blasts and firefight

Ten people, including six suicide attackers, were killed and 120 civilians injured as a group of suicide bombers stormed a compound of National Directorate for Security (NDS), the country's intelligence agency in Wardak's provincial capital Maidan Shahr 35 km west of Kabul on Sunday, the provincial government said in a statement released here.

"Six suicide bombers targeted the compound of the national intelligence agency in Maidan Shahr town at 01:15 p.m. local time today. One of them was killed in his blast and the remaining five were gunned down by security personnel," the statement said.

Afghan police officers gathered near a crater left after a vehicle packed with explosives detonated outside of the Afghan intelligence headquarters in Maydan Shahr, the capital of Wardak Province on September 8, 2013. (Photo: Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

Four personnel of the national intelligence agency had been killed and a police constable was injured, it added.

The statement said 120 civilians sustained injuries and several houses and shops around had been damaged during the blasts and firefight.

Head of Wardak's public health department Ghulam Farooq Wardak earlier said 150 civilians, including women and children, have been taken to hospitals for medical treatment and some of them were in critical conditions.

Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahid, who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit, told media via telephone from an unknown location that Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that five Taliban fighters equipped with suicide vests and light arms raided the compound of the intelligence agency and the NATO-led Provincial Reconstruction Team, a civilian-military unit involved in reconstruction activities, and killed scores of Afghan and foreign forces there, a claim rejected by local officials as baseless.

According to local officials, no foreign forces were hurt and all the victims are local people and four security personnel based in Maidan Shahr.

Characters Count: 2557