Afghan Taliban attack aid group, killing 2 guards, sparking battle

Associated Press

KABUL

In the latest militant strike on the Afghan capital, Taliban gunmen backed by a suicide car bomber attacked an international aid group’s compound Friday, killing two guards and setting off an hours-long street battle with police in the heart of Kabul .

The attack, the second in the city in just over a week, also left four International Organization for Migration workers wounded, including an Italian woman badly burned by a grenade. Thirteen police were wounded while all six attackers died in the assault, authorities said.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack on a guest house used by the IOM in an upscale neighborhood of Kabul, a relatively uncommon operation by the group targeting an international aid group.

At the chaotic scene of the siege, dozens of Afghan police took cover behind blast walls and rushed around through a thick cloud of smoke made by the bomb.

At least one wounded officer was seen being helped away by his comrades.