KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents wearing explosives vests attacked a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, unleashing an arsenal of car bombs, automatic rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
At least 18 people, many of them police, died, and dozens were wounded.
The afternoon raid on the provincial police base in Kandahar appeared to be an effort to undercut NATO assertions that the security situation had improved since last year’s influx of U.S. and Afghan troops into Kandahar province, the Taliban’s birthplace.
The Islamic militant movement claimed responsibility for the attack, which came amid U.S.-backed efforts to train Afghan forces so that they can take responsibility for national security by a 2014 deadline.
Fifteen of at least 18 people killed were Afghan police officers, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary in Kabul said 21 people were killed, including three Afghan soldiers, two civilians and one intelligence agent, and that 49 people were wounded.
Both officials said five suicide bombers also died. Ayubi said a sixth attacker was taken into custody.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said in a telephone interview that the group had deployed six suicide bombers in Kandahar on Saturday.
Insurgents struck about noon, detonating explosives near the police headquarters in central Kandahar. The compound is close to the governor’s office.
Initial reports indicated a car bomb exploded outside the headquarters, and two suicide bombers then tried to storm inside but blew themselves up outside the perimeter wall, NATO officials in Kandahar said.
Other attackers occupied a multistory building housing a wedding hall across the street from the police compound. From there, they opened fire.
“I was going to my shop just behind the police headquarters when the first blast occurred. I stopped, and after a minute or two, guns started firing,” said witness Abdul Kadeer Ahmed. “We could see that people at the wedding hall were firing toward the police headquarters.”
He said police were firing “everywhere.”
Residents shuttered shops and took cover as the fighting raged. Helicopters hovered over the city, and police deployed extra forces on the streets and around government buildings.
Associated Press reporters near the fighting said explosions and gunfire rocked the neighborhood for more than three hours.
A car bomb that detonated after the initial attack appeared designed to target police and rescuers coming to the aid of victims, NATO said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the attack was aimed at disrupting the peace process, a reference to his government’s efforts to reconcile with top Taliban leaders — even though no official negotiations are underway.
“This inhumane act by the Taliban demonstrates the brutality of terrorism and their complete disregard for human life,” U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said in a statement.
There are now 1,600 Afghan police officers in Kandahar — twice as many as last year — working to protect the city alongside a beefed-up, U.S.-led NATO presence throughout the province, but insurgents continue to attack officials and others who support pro-government forces.
