(12 Feb 2011)
++SHOTS 1-4 WERE FILMED OVER A PERIOD OF APPROXIMATELY 20 MINUTES++`
1. Various of Afghan police on the roof top of the building where attackers are hiding
2. Wide of explosion, windows shattering down, camera jars, AUDIO: explosion
3. Various of smoke coming out of building
4. Wide of helicopter flying over
++NIGHT SHOTS++
5. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Abdul Hadi, shopkeeper and resident of Kandahar city:
"I was sitting in my shop when an explosion happened followed by shooting, then Afghan and American forces arrived there and we closed our shops and left the area. The explosion happened in Zarnegar wedding hall."
6. Various of Afghan soldiers at check point
STORYLINE:
Taliban insurgents armed with bombs, automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the Kandahar police headquarters on Saturday, in a bloody assault on the southern Afghan city that killed at least 21 people and wounded dozens more.
The afternoon raid showed that insurgents were still able to launch deadly strikes on heavily fortified government institutions, despite the past year's influx of US troops into Kandahar province, the Taliban's birthplace.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Fifteen of those killed were Afghan police officers, said the provincial governor.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said three Afghan soldiers, two civilians and one intelligence service agent also died in the assault.
Insurgents first struck around noon, detonating a series of explosions that rocked the area near the provincial police headquarters.
The police post is located in central Kandahar, not far from the governor's offices.
Initial reports suggest a car bomb exploded outside the police compound, and then immediately afterwards two suicide bombers tried to storm the headquarters but blew themselves up outside the perimeter wall, according to NATO officials in Kandahar.
Five militants fitted with suicide vests battled with police for several hours, said the interior ministry spokesman.
Some occupied a multi-storey building housing a wedding hall across the street from the headquarters.
From there, they fired on the police headquarters compound with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
An Associated Press reporter nearby said multiple explosions rocked the neighbourhood around the station.
Exchanges of gunfire occasionally died down, only to pick up again several minutes later.
Residents quickly shuttered shops and took cover inside as the fighting raged, and NATO vehicles could be seen inside the city.
Helicopters hovered overhead as police deployed extra forces on the streets and around government buildings.
Several loud explosions again rattled buildings more than an hour after the first blast struck.
The interior ministry said 49 people were wounded - 25 police officers, 23 civilians and one intelligence agent.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press the group was behind the attack.
He said the Taliban deployed six suicide bombers armed with hand-held weapons to various parts of the city, including a team of three to the site near the police headquarters.
The claim could not be independently verified.

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