Two bodyguards and two suicide attackers were killed in a firefight inside the governor’s compound in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province yesterday, an official said.
“Two suicide attackers and two bodyguards of the governor have been killed in the attack,” Kandahar government spokesman Zalmay Ayobi said.
The insurgents, who somehow made it through the tight security at the compound, exchanged fire with Afghan security forces while a NATO helicopter hovered overhead, a reporter at the scene said.
“We are inside the compound and we are all fine,” provincial governor Toryalai Weesa said as the fighting raged.
“Two to three hooligans have entered the compound — the security forces have surrounded them, they will soon be killed or captured,” he said.
Kandahar Province is the heartland of hardline Taliban insurgents and has been one of the hardest hit in 10 years of war in which NATO troops are supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai.
Meanwhile, a US defense official has disclosed a second deadly incident in Afghanistan this week in which an Afghan soldier turned his gun on US troops.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the second case has not been acknowledged publicly by the US-led international military coalition in Afghanistan.
The incidents happened on Wednesday, about two hours apart.
The coalition did report the first case, saying a person in an Afghan army uniform killed one coalition service member. US officials in Washington said the victim was a US Army special operations soldier and that three other US soldiers were wounded in the attack. A civilian interpreter also was killed, as was the attacker.
In the second attack, two Afghan police officers fired on US soldiers, wounding two. The Afghans were then killed.
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