Taliban attack follows U.S. airstrike

CIVILIANS KILLED

KABUL • Taliban insurgents staged a co-ordinated attack targeting a security firm in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 19 others, as the U.S. said an airstrike hours earlier in Helmand province that reportedly killed civilians was conducted by American aircraft.

Wednesday’s attack in eastern Kabul took place when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives and other insurgents started a gun battle with security forces in the area, Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.

The assault came hours after provincial officials said at least 30 civilians were killed along with 16 Taliban fighters during the overnight battle between Afghan government forces and insurgents in southern Helmand province.

A local official, Attahullah Afghan, said most of the civilian casualties — which included men, women and children — came when an airstrike struck a house in the central Helmand River valley, a Taliban heartland. U.S. officials said it happened in Helmand’s Garmsir district.

A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul said the airstrike was carried out by American aircraft called in to back Afghan “special security forces” after they came under heavy Taliban fire.

Maj. Bariki Mallya, the spokesman, said in an email exchange that the airstrike was conducted in self-defence after Taliban fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine-guns retreated into a compound and continued firing on Afghan government forces and their American advisers.

“In self-defence, the ground force called an airstrike,” Mallya said. “After the strike, there were secondary explosions, we assess from explosives inside the compound. At the time of the strike, the ground force was unaware of any civilians in or around the compound; they only knew that the Taliban were using the building as a fighting position.”

A statement from the governor’s office in Helmand confirmed that 16 Taliban insurgents were killed.

It said the militants had stockpiled ammunition in the area of the operation, which could have caused civilian casualties. There was also a car packed with explosives that ignited during the strike, the statement added.

The resurgent Taliban, who in recent years have taken over nearly half of Afghanistan, claimed the attack Wednesday in Kabul.

The attacks were the latest in a series of brutal and near-daily Taliban assaults on military and police forces and government and other installations throughout the country.