KUNDUZ – Three suicide bombers attacked a guesthouse frequented by foreigners in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz yesterday, killing four Afghan security guards employed by a German company, a senior police detective said. The raid followed a string of assassinations in the once peaceful north of the country.
One attacker detonated a car bomb at the gates of the guesthouse. The other two stormed the building where they fought Afghan forces for a couple of hours before detonating their explosives, said Kunduz police detective Abdul Rahman.
Ten people, including civilians and a police officer, were wounded in the attack, said Mr Rahman. It was not immediately clear if any foreigners were among the wounded. The slain Afghan security guards were employed by German development agency GTZ, he said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, said spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
Violence has intensified in the north of the country in the past year as insurgents seek to demonstrate their reach beyond their traditional southern heartland around Kandahar city.
The police chief of north Afghanistan, Gen Dawood Dawood, was killed in May in a massive bomb attack in Takhar province, along with the Takhar police chief. In June, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a memorial service for Dawood in Kunduz, killing at least four policemen. The attack appeared to target the police chief of Kunduz province, Sameullah Qatra, whose predecessor was killed by a suicide bomber in March. Mr Qatra was unharmed. – (Reuters)