(22 May 2011)
1. Various of smoke rising from traffic department building/ UPSOUND: gunfire
2. Various of US forces at the gates of the traffic department building
3. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Khost provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai:
"There are four people, they came in a Corolla car and opened fire on traffic department guards and then they entered inside the building. They are on the second floor now, the first floor is under our control and we are trying to take control of the second floor."
4. Mid of Afghan Army and US forces at gate
5. Wide of Afghan Army running towards traffic department building
6. Mid of building on fire
7. Mid of US forces at the gates of the traffic department
STORYLINE:
Gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed a government building in eastern Afghanistan early on Sunday and engaged in a shootout with Afghan security forces who surrounded the compound, officials said.
US forces joined the shootout as at least three Afghan police officers were killed.
Three or four men armed with assault rifles and wearing explosives strapped to their bodies shot their way into a compound that houses the traffic department on the edge of Khost city shortly after dawn, said Gen. Raz Mohammad Oryakhail, the army commander for Khost province.
They killed a police guard as they entered and then took over the second floor of the building, from which they shot down at police and soldiers outside, he said.
The gunbattle was still going on more than four hours later, and flames were shooting out of the building, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai. At least two more police were killed, he said.
Ishaqzai said security officials believed some of the attackers were also dead.
Police and soldiers were trying to avoid launching a full assault because they didn't want the gunmen to detonate their suicide vests, Ishaqzai said.
Afghan security forces had the compound surrounded, he said.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message to The Associated Press.
The attack came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber infiltrated the capital's main military hospital and killed at least six Afghan medical students.
The Taliban have stepped up attacks as part of their spring offensive against NATO, Afghan government installations and officials.
Insurgents also have promised revenge attacks after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan earlier this month.
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