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Gunmen attack police HQ in Afghanistan's Kandahar

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Saturday, 12 February 2011 08:12 GMT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked the provincial police headquarters in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Saturday but it was unclear if there were any casualties, a Reuters witness and NATO-led forces said.

"There's small arms fire going on right now," a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition said by telephone from Kandahar.

A Reuters witness reported hearing two explosions followed by gunfire in Kandahar city, close to the police chief's compound.

He said insurgents appeared to have seized a tall building near the compound from which they were firing at the police headquarters.

Kandahar province, on Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, is the heartland of a tenacious Taliban insurgency now its tenth year. Violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government.

Last month, a suicide bomber killed Kandahar's deputy governor as he left his home.

The United States says it has made progress in securing parts of southern Afghanistan such as Kandahar, but the insurgency has spread to previously peaceful areas in the north and west.

(Reporting by Ismail Sameem, and Matt Robinson in KABUL; Writing by Matt Robinson, editing by Miral Fahmy)

(If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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