KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents attacked the Independent Election Commission headquarters in Kabul yesterday, staff and police said, in the their third big assault on the capital this week aimed at derailing the April 5 presidential election.
Afghan security forces battled the militants for about five hours, while frightened IEC staff and eight international United Nations employees took refuge in safe rooms inside the compound, a security source and staff said.
Four suicide bombers were involved in the attack and all were killed in gunbattles, according to an Afghan army general on the scene in the eastern part of the capital.
“The fight is over. All four terrorists have been killed. An investigation team is in the area,” said commander Qadam Shah Shaheem, adding that three security force members had been injured in the operation.
No other casualties were reported.
With a week to go before Afghanistan’s presidential election, escalating violence across the country risks undermining the credibility of a vote meant to mark the first democratic transfer of power in Afghan history.
It was the second IEC building this week to have been targeted by the radical Islamist Taliban. The attack occurred less than 24 hours after militants stormed a guesthouse used by a US-based aid group. A child was killed in Friday’s attack.
Kabul is on high alert ahead of the presidential election that Taliban insurgents have threatened to scuttle with a campaign of bombings and assassinations. Election commission staff heard an initial explosion at around midday yesterday at the IEC headquarters, followed by gunfire and rockets, one of which damaged a warehouse inside the compound, according to an IEC employee.
“Four suicide bombers armed with light and heavy weapons have entered a building near the IEC headquarters and are shooting towards the IEC compound and at passersby,” Mohammad Zahir, the Kabul police chief, told reporters near the site of the attack at the time it was going on.
