2nd LD Writethru: 4 killed, 25 injured as gunmen storm provincial attorney office in Afghanistan
Xinhua, April 9, 2015 Adjust font size:
Some four persons were killed while 25 others wounded in a terrorist attack at a court in the northern Afghan province of Balkh on Thursday, official sources said.
"Five to six terrorist armed with suicide vests and rifles stormed the provincial attorney office in provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif. They killed the policeman guarding the compound before entering the buildings at around 11:30 a.m.(local time). Sporadic gunfire still going on at evening," a security source told Xinhua anonymously.
Among those killed were a district police chief, a city judge and two policemen, the source said, adding that "the number of casualties might go up."
About 25 officials and civilians, including women and children, sustained injuries and were shifted to hospitals in the relatively peaceful city, 305 km north of Afghan capital of Kabul.
Many wounded remained in critical condition.
The attackers were disguised in military uniforms. Many officials and visitors were rescued by the security forces.
Unconfirmed reports said that a few people were taken hostage by the attackers.
Two explosions took place and one of the buildings in the compound has caught fire, the source noted.
Atta Mohammad Noor, the acting provincial governor, has strongly condemned the incident, for which no group has claimed responsibility yet.
The attack came as the Afghan security forces have assumed full security responsibility from NATO-led troops since Jan. 1.
The Taliban militant group has recently intensified attacks across the country as spring and summer known as the fighting season is drawing near.
Nearly 3,700 civilians were killed and more than 6,800 others wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led attacks in 2014, according to official figures released by UN mission in the country.
In a separate development, up to 10 Taliban militants, including an insurgents' shadow district governor named Shahnoor Chapaw were killed following an airstrike in eastern Laghman province earlier on Thursday, the provincial government said in a statement. Endi