By Zahihullah Tamanna
KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) – At least 31 people were killed and 152 injured in a coordinated Taliban attack on government buildings in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, police said.
According to local officials, 19 militants and six Afghan security personnel were killed and at least 136 civilians injured during the attack in Afghanistan's eastern city of Ghazni.
“Number of Taliban attackers was 19, wearing Afghan military forces’ uniforms. They used two truck bombs to start their attack which has destroyed various governmental and civilian buildings near the area,” Assadullah Insafi, deputy provincial police commander, told the Anadolu Agency.
Mohammad Rahim, a police officer, told the AA at the site of attack that it started when a truck full of explosives at the offices of the intelligence services and was "followed by groups of gunmen targeting various governmental departments including rapid reaction forces, provincial police head quarter and culture and information office."
A member of the medical team at a local hospital said, on condition of anonymity, that it was struggling to handle the number of patients.
“We have received more than 150 wounded people and possibly the number is increasing. The hospital and its staff are not capable to cover all of them. At least 50 of the wounded people are in critical condition and we don’t how many of them are civilians,” he said.
Zabiullha Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack on his Twitter account and said that the militants targeted the provincial police station, intelligence service office and the rapid reaction police forces' facilities with three car bombs.
In a similar incident, a group of six Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers targeted the intelligence service department in the eastern province of Nangarhar last week, which killed or injured at least 40 people.
Recent months have seen a wave of attacks carried out across Afghanistan, killing hundreds of people.
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