Afghanistan: at least 11 dead in Taliban bombing

At least 11 members of the Afghan forces were killed on Monday (July 13th) and dozens injured in an attack claimed by the Taliban on an Afghan Intelligence Agency rural office in the north of the country, officials said.

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Insurgents said a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in a car near the National Security Directorate (DNS) while gunmen stormed the building in Aybak, Samangan province. Eleven people were killed and 63 others, most of them civilians, were injured, provincial governor Abdul Latif Ibrahimi told AFP.

The attack, which lasted nearly four hours, ended when the security forces killed three attackers, said the spokesman for the governor, Sediq Azizi. " It was a huge explosion that shattered all of our windows, " said Haseeb, an official working near the NDS who only gave his first name. " Many people were injured by the broken glass ."

Two attacks last Sunday

The Taliban regularly attack security forces in the north, and have attempted to enter Kunduz city, which has fallen twice into the hands of militants in recent years, on several occasions. At least 19 members of the Afghan forces were killed on Sunday in two bombings claimed by the Taliban.

A group of 12 soldiers and police were killed in a clash against Taliban fighters who attacked their outpost in northern Kunduz province, according to a local authority. In the second attack on Sunday, at least seven police officers died while clashing with Taliban fighters in Badakhshan (northeast).