Wednesday, May 29, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A senior Afghan official said security forces rescued seven foreigners working for the International Red Cross today after a two-hour-long gun battle with insurgents at a guest house in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said the three women and four men were safe after police killed an insurgent who had remained holed up inside the compound. He said one of the male aid workers was lightly wounded.
The other of the two assailants had detonated a suicide vest at the building's gate at the beginning of the attack, killing an Afghan security guard, Sediqi said.
Security forces were searching surrounding buildings in case any other attackers were involved and managed to escape, he added.
A spokesman for the Red Cross in Afghanistan, Abdul Hasib Rahimi, said all organization's foreign staff that were inside the compound are safe. He said they were checking to see if any Afghan staffers were there at the time, but added that local employees had left for the day an hour before the attack. The foreigners live in the compound, he added.