Suicide bombers, gunmen attack Afghan governor’s compound
A squad of suicide bombers and gunmen on Wednesday stormed a provincial governor’s compound in southwestern Afghanistan, setting off a fierce gun battle. Security forces managed to fight off the attackers, but 13 people died, including all nine assailants, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault in Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province. The attackers wore police uniforms, a tactic commonly used by insurgents to cause initial confusion when striking government buildings and security installations.
A female provincial council member, two police officers and another civilian were among those killed in the assault, said Gen. Jabar Purdili, the police chief of Nimruz. About a dozen people were reported to have been wounded in the attack on the heavily guarded compound, which came as the provincial council was holding a meeting.
Nimruz shares a border with Helmand province, where some of the heaviest fighting of the nearly 9-year-old Afghan conflict has taken place in recent months.
Complex, coordinated attacks on government installations have become more common as an emboldened insurgency has braced for an expected confrontation with North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces this summer in Kandahar province, the hub of Afghanistan’s south.
Western military officials have said they intend to drive the Taliban from Kandahar, the insurgency’s spiritual home. The operation is in its first stages; special operations forces have been targeting midlevel insurgent field commanders, while other coalition troops, including Americans and Canadians, have struggled to secure routes in and out of Kandahar city, the provincial capital.
The insurgents are digging in or going underground, and have embarked on a concerted campaign of assassinations of government officials and tribal leaders in the city and its outlying districts. These killings are apparently meant to undermine the West’s stated goal of bolstering the authority of the Afghan government in the strategic province.
Wednesday’s attack pointed up what the military calls a “squirting” effect: When Taliban fighters are driven from one sanctuary, they seek another. Some of the militant factions operating in Nimruz are thought to have fled an offensive this year by U.S. Marines and other coalition forces in Marja, in Helmand.
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