11 dead as Kandahar clashes enter 2nd day

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN):  Nearly a dozen people, including six suicide bombers, were killed and another 44 injured as clashes between security forces and militants entered a second day in southern Kandahar province on Sunday, officials said.

The insurgents, using heavy and light weapons, on Saturday launched a wave of attacks on government offices at 1pm in Kandahar City. Trade fire between attackers and security forces continued until Sunday morning, with the insurgents firing and throwing hand grenades at the governor’s house and other government departments.

A doctor at the Mirwais hospital, wishing anonymity, confirmed receiving two dead bodies and 46 injured people at the hospital. Three seriously injured people died of their wounds at the hospital on Sunday, he said. The dead included three civilians and two security personnel, he said.

Helicopters of foreign troops were seen hovering over the city and firing at trenches of attackers.

A resident of Mirwais Maidna locality, Habibullah, said his children stayed awoke all the night due gun battles and explosions. He asked the Taliban not to attack officials inside the city, because many civilians were caught in the crossfire.

“We have a patient at home, but we could not take him to hospital due to firings in the city,” a resident of the first police district, Saifullah, said.

Militants used public places and markets for their attacks on government departments, but security personnel pushed them back, a statement from the governor’s office said.

It said six suicide bombers, a soldier and a civilian have been killed and 29 others, most of them civilians, were injured during the attacks. There were two car bomb blasts and as many rickshaw blasts, the statement added.

A security official said more than 25 explosions took place since Saturday afternoon.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said they had launched an operation, the Badr operation, against government officials. In the attacks in Kandahar city, he said, 116 security personnel were killed and wounded and 19 military vehicles destroyed.

myn/ma

Visits: 6