Taliban suicide attacks kill dozens

by Dramelin 7:30 AM 0 comments

Suicide bombers and gunmen have stormed a police training centre in the eastern Afghan city of Gardez, killing at least 33 people.
Another 160 were injured in the assault.
The interior ministry said the local police chief was among the dead.
The Taliban said it was behind the attack, and is being blamed for a second ambush in neighbouring Ghazni province.
That assault killed 21 security officials, the governor told the BBC.
At least 24 others were wounded, and there are fears civilians were also caught up in the blasts.
Casualty numbers from both attacks are expected to rise further.
A bloody day for Afghan police The violence at the Gardez police headquarters began when a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives, before a number of gunmen began an assault on the building.
Security forces battled the militants for several hours.
At least five of the assailants were killed, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The compound, in Paktia province, contains the headquarters of the national police, border police and Afghan National Army.
The victims included "women, students and police", Gardez public health director Hedayatullah Hamidi told AFP news agency.
Many were civilians who had gone to the site to get their passports and national IDs, the Paktia governor`s office said.
The local hospital has called on people to donate blood, saying it is "overwhelmed".
University students queued at the medical centre to answer the plea, a photographer at the scene reported.
About 100km (62 miles) away, Ghazni police chief Mohammad Zaman said "dozens of Taliban" had died in the assault there.
The pattern was similar to the Gardez attack.
Armoured Humvee vehicles filled with explosives were detonated near the provincial governor`s office, before gunmen moved in.
The bloodshed comes just days after police in the capital, Kabul, said they had arrested a would-be suicide truck bomber, averting a major incident.
The truck was carrying almost three tonnes of explosives and two bombs, which had been hidden under boxes of tomatoes.
A truck bomb killed more than 150 people in Kabul in May.