Kabul - Nine people were killed and 16 others were wounded when a group of 11 Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and carrying automatic weapons attacked several government buildings in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, officials said. All the attackers were eventually killed, either in a clash with Afghan and US military forces or by their own blasts, government sources said.
The Afghan defence ministry said that a group of 11 Taliban suicide bombers attacked a government building in Khost city, the capital of the province of the same name, on Tuesday morning.
"In these terrorist attacks, nine of our countrymen were martyred and 16 others were wounded," the defence ministry said in a statement.
The statement did not give the breakdown of the victims, but Amir Padshah Mangal, head of the public health department in the province earlier said that hospitals had received the dead bodies of four Afghan security forces and two civilians.
He said another 15 - mostly civilians - were wounded in the blasts and were receiving treatment.
The army statement said that after the Taliban attacks began "Afghan army and police forces responded and by 4:00 pm (1100 GMT) all the terrorists were eliminated."
Zemarai Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry said the attack began at 10:00 am when that Taliban suicide bombers detonated their explosive-laden vehicles in front of the provincial governor's office and municipal building in the city.
A police source in the province earlier said that Afghan and US military forces were searching the municipality compound because some of the attackers were believed to be hiding there.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said approximately 30 Taliban fighters equipped with suicide vests and weapons attacked the police headquarters and the provincial governor's building in Khost city.
Mujahid, who was speaking from an undisclosed location by phone, claimed that their attacks killed 50 Afghan and foreign soldiers.
Abdul Qayoum Baqizoy, provincial police chief said that three of the would-be suicide bombers tried to enter the police headquarters, but were pushed back and killed in the shootout.
Wali Jan, a shopkeeper in the city, earlier said there were fierce gun-battles in several locations in the city and that traffic had been halted.
Bashary said that the Afghan security forces had "total control of the situation in the city" and that both the governor and city's mayor were unharmed.
Taliban militants have recently conducted several brazen attacks that involved several militants, who nearly simultaneously targeted several building in the same town. In March several militants stormed government buildings in southern city of Kandahar, killing eight people.
Khost province, which houses a large number of US soldiers and borders Pakistan, has seen a number of suicide attacks carried out by Taliban insurgents.
Tuesday's attack came a day after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates sacked the top US commander in Afghanistan General David McKiernan, saying the conflict needed a fresh approach.
McKiernan will be replaced by Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, a former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command.
More than 70,000 international troops from 42 nations are currently stationed in Afghanistan. The US government has ordered the deployment of 21,000 additional forces, set to arrive in Afghanistan in coming months.
