5 Killed in Attack by Suicide Bombers on Government Building

Gunmen wearing police uniforms and suicide vests stormed a government building in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday, starting a running shootout with Afghan security forces who surrounded the compound, officials said. At least five people were killed in ongoing fighting.

The attack came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber infiltrated the capital's main military hospital and killed at least six Afghan medical students. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack in Khost province in a text message to The Associated Press.

In Sunday's incident, four men armed with assault rifles and wearing explosives drove shortly before dawn into a compound that houses the provincial traffic department on the edge of Khost city, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai. Security forces stopped the men, who were wearing uniforms of the Afghan Border Police, only after becoming suspicious of the civilian station wagon they drove, he said.

Guards opened fire on the attackers, but the men were able to kill a police officer and occupy the upper floors of the building, Ishaqzai said. The attackers shot down on Afghan security forces from their vantage point as a fire raged through the structure.

Two of the attackers' suicide vests exploded during the fighting, though it was unclear whether they triggered the bombs or bullets caused them to detonate, Ishaqzai said. Security forces shot a third attacker to death, he said. Explosives found inside the attackers' station wagon were defused.

The police chief said the men could have been stopped before taking the building had a guard's Hungarian-made assault rifle not jammed. The U.S. has provided Afghan police with some of those weapons.

Three police officers, one Afghan soldier and a civilian were killed in the attack, Ishaqzai said. Five police officers and one civilian were wounded.

The gunbattle was still going on more than six hours later with the remaining gunman.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan shot a governor's spokesman in the foot Sunday as he arrived to work. Spokesman Zalmai Ayubi leaned on a cane as he spoke with reporters, his left foot bandaged.

Ayubi said U.S. forces shot him as he arrived at the gate of the Kandahar governor's office for no reason. In a statement to the AP, NATO forces confirmed the shooting, saying Ayubi had grappled with a guard as he "attempted to physically bypass security" at the office.

"In the ensuing altercation, the U.S. soldier's rifle was discharged, hitting the spokesman in the foot," NATO said.

NATO said an investigation into the shooting had begun.

Also Sunday, two women were killed and five other people wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in the southern province of Zabul, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

Sunday's attacks come after a Taliban suicide bomber on a mission to target foreign-run medical teams killed at least six Afghan medical students and wounded 23 others after infiltrating Kabul's main military hospital, officials said.

The bombing was a blow to Afghan and NATO forces, which have sharply expanded checkpoints and security cordons in the capital as the Taliban has intensified attacks ahead of a planned U.S. drawdown in July.

No foreign medical doctors or nurses were among the dead or wounded, Afghan and NATO officials said. There are a number of military doctors and nurses from various NATO countries at the hospital as part of the alliance's mission to train Afghan forces.