Suicide attackers kill 19 in southern Afghanistan

Suicide bombers armed with guns killed at least 19 people and wounded another 35 when they attacked government buildings in Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province Thursday, public health officials said. The attack was the deadliest in the south in nearly six months, and comes shortly after the killing of a string of powerful regional leaders, including a former governor of Uruzgan who was gunned down in his home in Kabul this month. Up to six suicide bombers stormed the provincial governor’s compound and the police chief’s compound in Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi. Three bombers had detonated their explosives and police were engaged in a gun battle with the remaining attackers, he added. Uruzgan is a largely rural and mountainous province north of Kandahar, to which it has many cultural and tribal links, and the Taliban have long had a presence there. “Nineteen people have been killed,” said Khan Agha Nehakhil, head of Uruzgan’s health department, adding that security forces and civilians, including one journalist, were among the dead. Another 37 people were wounded. Nehakhil had earlier given a slightly lower toll. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said [...]