Suicide Attackers Strike Afghan City

Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the main police station today in the southeast city of Khost, triggering hours-long gunbattles that left seven militants dead and 14 people wounded, officials said. The attack began in the afternoon when at least six fighters stormed the area around the main police station. All were all shot and killed before they could detonate their explosive vests.

A seventh attacker detonated a car rigged with the explosives near a police rapid reaction force, wounding two policemen. The Afghan Interior Ministry said all attackers had been killed, but residents said sporadic firing could still be heard late in the afternoon. The Defense Ministry said an eighth attacker may have gotten away. Khost is about 12 miles from the Pakistani border and has long been a flash point because of smuggling across the frontier. (More Afghanistan stories.)