The Taliban are continuing their trend of going after softer targets like banks, malls, and hospitals for maximum disruption and terror. “Taliban hit Khost police station,” from UPI, May 22:
KHOST, Afghanistan, May 22 (UPI) — Taliban militants seized control of a traffic police building in Khost, Afghanistan, Sunday, killing three officers, a police official said.
“Apparently three to four suicide bombers armed with rifles entered the traffic police department in provincial capital Khost city, so far I can confirm three traffic police officers have been killed,” provincial police Chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai told the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
At least four other people were injured in the 4:30 a.m. attack, which included the detonation of a bomb in front of the building before the militants wearing border police uniforms rushed inside, Xinhua said.
Deputy Provincial Police Chief Mohammed Yaqoob Noorzia told the New York Times the insurgents were wearing bomb-laden vests and were armed with rocket propelled grenades and AK-47 weapons.
It took nearly four hours for Afghan and NATO troops to secure the building, The Times said, although what happened to the attackers wasn’t immediately clear.
“We don’t know how many of the suicide bombers blew themselves up and how many were killed in the firefight with police,” Noorzia said.