2 Taliban die in clash with police in Afghan city

[December 21, 2009]  KABUL (AP) -- Police fought a three-hour gunbattle in the center of an Afghan provincial capital Monday, finally killing two Taliban militants firing from the top floor of a commercial building with dozens of civilians inside, an official said.

Three civilians and one police officer were wounded in the fighting in the eastern province of Paktia, said the deputy provincial police chief, who disputed reports that the attackers were wearing suicide vests.

The violence comes as Afghanistan prepares for a surge of new foreign troops in the next few months. Much of Paktia, which borders Pakistan, is a Taliban stronghold, and the strengthening insurgency has previously launched assaults on the provincial capital, Gardez.

Officials earlier said that five militants armed with guns and suicide vests had stormed the building near the provincial police headquarters in Gardez about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Kabul, and that at least three had been killed.

But Ghulam Dastagir, Paktia's deputy police chief, told The Associated Press by telephone that there were only two attackers armed with assault rifles, a machine gun and about 40 rifle-launched grenades.

He said no suicide vests were found when police finally killed the militants and searched the building. A separate statement later from the national Interior Ministry, however, said the attackers were wearing explosives-filled vests.

As the fighting raged Monday afternoon, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press said that there were five attackers, all wearing suicide vests.

Shops throughout the city were closed as residents hunkered down in their houses to wait out the fighting. University student Jumakhan, who like many Afghans goes by one name, said he saw the fighting start and ran behind a nearby building. He said he could see NATO forces in the streets, along with Afghan army and police.

Dastagir said the attackers were on the top floor of a four-story building housing a supermarket and shops, about 165 yards (150 meters) from the police headquarters. The floor itself was under construction, but there were about 50 civilians in the building when the fighting broke out, forcing police to conduct the operation carefully, he said.

There was no immediate word on the condition of the three civilians and police officer who were wounded, he said.

The most recent major insurgent attack on Gardez was in July, when militants launched nearly simultaneous attacks on security facilities, killing three police and three intelligence officers.

President Barack Obama is planning to send an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan to try to stem rising violence and reverse gains made by the Taliban since the 2001 invasion that drove their hard-line Islamist regime from power. Another 7,000 troops are to come from other countries to bolster security.

Also Monday, the Defense Ministry said 24 militants were killed in operations the day before. The ministry said eight insurgents were killed in southern Helmand province, six in Ghazni in the east, seven in northern Kunduz province, two in Kandahar province in the south and one in Wardak, west of Kabul.

NATO said a joint Afghan-international force killed several militants on Sunday after coming under fire while searching a compound in Wardak province.

In Nangarhar province in Afghanistan's east, a civilian was killed and two were injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, said Gafor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

[Associated Press; By RAHIM FAIEZ]

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