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Afghanistan Taliban suicide attacks kill dozens | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Suicide bombers and gunmen have stormed a police training centre in the eastern Afghan city of Gardez, killing at least 33 people. | |
Another 160 were injured in the assault. The interior ministry said the local police chief was among the dead. | |
The Taliban said it was behind the attack, and is being blamed for a second ambush in neighbouring Ghazni province. | |
That assault killed 21 security officials, the governor told the BBC. | |
At least 24 others were wounded, and there are fears civilians were also caught up in the blasts. | |
Casualty numbers from both attacks are expected to rise further. | |
A bloody day for Afghan police | |
The violence at the Gardez police headquarters began when a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives, before a number of gunmen began an assault on the building. | |
Security forces battled the militants for several hours. At least five of the assailants were killed, the interior ministry said in a statement. | |
The compound, in Paktia province, contains the headquarters of the national police, border police and Afghan National Army. | |
The victims included "women, students and police", Gardez public health director Hedayatullah Hamidi told AFP news agency. | |
Many were civilians who had gone to the site to get their passports and national IDs, the Paktia governor's office said. | |
The local hospital has called on people to donate blood, saying it is "overwhelmed". | |
University students queued at the medical centre to answer the plea, a photographer at the scene reported. | |
About 100km (62 miles) away, Ghazni police chief Mohammad Zaman said "dozens of Taliban" had died in the assault there. | |
The pattern was similar to the Gardez attack. | |
Armoured Humvee vehicles filled with explosives were detonated near the provincial governor's office, before gunmen moved in. | |
The bloodshed comes just days after police in the capital, Kabul, said they had arrested a would-be suicide truck bomber, averting a major incident. | |
The truck was carrying almost three tonnes of explosives and two bombs, which had been hidden under boxes of tomatoes. | The truck was carrying almost three tonnes of explosives and two bombs, which had been hidden under boxes of tomatoes. |
A truck bomb killed more than 150 people in Kabul in May. | A truck bomb killed more than 150 people in Kabul in May. |