At least nine people were killed when Taliban guerrillas, including suicide bombers, attacked government buildings in a town in eastern Afghanistan today, officials said.
Two provincial officials in Gardez, capital of eastern Paktika province, said at least five members of the Afghan security forces and three Taliban fighters had been killed as gunbattles raged in the town.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Two of the attackers were suicide bombers dressed in traditional head-to-toe burqas worn by many Afghan women, said an Afghan source working for a foreign aid agency.
A number of government offices were hit in the attacks, the source said.
The complex attack resembled other recent assaults by the Taliban in eastern Nuristan, Paktika province and even the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere
Gunbattles were being fought between the insurgents and government forces and at least one loud blast was heard, several Gardez residents said on the condition of anonymity.
Officials in the town would not comment openly and the Interior Ministry in Kabul said it was checking the reports.
Violence has flared across Afghanistan since thousands of US Marines and British troops launched major offensives in the southern Taliban stronghold of Helmand.
The offensives are the first operations under US president Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and its Islamist allies and stabilise Afghanistan.
Reuters