Six killed in Taliban attack in Afghanistan's Ghazni
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Afghan security personnel stand alert at the entrance to a provincial court in Ghazni on June 1, 2016, after a group of Taliban gunmen targeted the building.
A fresh attack by the Taliban terrorists in eastern Afghanistan has killed six people as the militants step up their annual spring offensive after naming a new leader.
Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday that five civilians and a policeman were killed in the attack carried out by Taliban gunmen at a court building in the Ghazni, the capital of the province by the same name.
Sources in the office of the provincial governor said four Taliban militants were involved in the attack which began by an explosion at the court’s entrance. Security forces then rushed to the scene and killed the three other attackers after a 30-minute siege.
Jawed Salangi, spokesman for Ghazni’s governor, said the toll could have risen if the militants had managed to detonate an explosives-packed vehicle which was parked near the courthouse. He said police forces were attempting to defuse the vehicle.
Other officials said over a dozen civilians, including the chief judge of the court, were also wounded in the incident.
Taliban claimed the attack in a statement. The group did not mention, however, the fate of dozens of people kidnapped on Tuesday in the northern province of Kunduz. The attack, which saw the militants offloading people from four buses on the road, left more than a dozen killed.
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