14 die as Taliban bombers attack 2 Afghan cities

By AMIR SHAH and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

GARDEZ, Afghanistan – Eight Taliban militants attacked three government buildings and a U.S. base in two eastern cities Tuesday in near-simultaneous attacks — a signature of major Taliban assaults. Eight insurgents and six Afghan security forces died.

Using suicide bombings, gunfire and rockets, the militants attacked the governor's compound, the intelligence department and the police department in the eastern city of Gardez just before 11 a.m. (0630GMT; 2:30 a.m. EDT), officials said.

Tribal elders and government officials had just finished a meeting at the governor's compound about security for the country's Aug. 20 presidential election when gunfire broke out at the nearby intelligence department, said deputy Gov. Abdul Rahman Mangal.

A rocket fired into the intelligence department killed three officers, said Ghulam Dastagir, the province's deputy police chief, while a suicide bombing in front of a police station killed two police. A rocket was also fired at the governor's house, he said.

A total of four attackers were shot and killed at the police station and the governor's compound, Dastagir said, including at least two bombers clothed in women's burqas, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.

"When I jumped up on the roof I saw two attackers. One was hiding under a burqa and was carrying a rocket propelled grenade," said Wahidullah Bakshi, an Afghan soldier who responded to the attack.

Three militants, meanwhile, tried to attack a U.S. base in a second eastern city at nearly the same time.

U.S. and Afghan forces killed two of the assailants at the base near the city of Jalalabad, said Mohammad Ayub Salangi, the provincial police chief. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Robert Carr said a third attacker was captured.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed 15 militants — all in suicide vests — attacked government centers in Gardez. He said they were carrying AK-47 assault rifles and rockets.

Taliban militants over the last year have launched several complex attacks, which usually involve multiple suicide bombers and additional gunmen. They have been launched in Kabul, the capital, and Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual birthplace. Analysts say al-Qaida fighters provide the training that help militants here to carry out such attacks.

The most recent complex attack took place in May in the eastern city of Khost, when 11 Taliban suicide bombers struck government buildings, sparking gunbattles with U.S. and Afghan forces. Twenty people died in the attacks and three American troops were wounded.

Khost, which is 40 miles (70 kilometers) east of Gardez, is a key area of operation for militants associated with the insurgent network run by Sirajuddin Haqqani. Mangal, the deputy governor, said it was possible Haqqani's forces had launched Tuesday's attack in Gardez.

Taliban militants have stepped up attacks the last three years and now control wide swaths of countryside in the south and east. A record 68,000 U.S. troops will be in the country by fall as the Pentagon increases its focus on Afghanistan while drawing forces out of Iraq.

An explosion in the south killed a British soldier in Helmand province on Monday, Britain's Ministry of Defense said. The soldier was the 18th from Britain to die this month, an unusually high death toll that has sparked controversy in the United Kingdom over Britain's role in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military on Tuesday said one of its forces died in a vehicle accident, raising the U.S. death toll in July to 31 — the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

In other violence, 10 Taliban were killed and three other militants wounded while making bombs Monday in a house in Ghazni province, said Gen. Khail Buz Sherzai, the provincial police chief. A bomb detonated prematurely and killed them, he said.