Afghan security forces battled a group of attackers who stormed a government building in the eastern city of Jalalabad for hours on Sunday after a coordinated assault that killed at least nine people and wounded dozens, local officials said.
It was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks that have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan this year and put heavy pressure on the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani.
Most have been in the capital Kabul, but in January gunmen attacked an office of aid group Save the Children in Jalalabad, killing at least five people and wounding 25. That attack, claimed by Islamic State, followed much the same pattern as Sunday’s incident.
After several hours of fighting which sent plumes of smoke rising into the sky above the accounts office, Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said Sunday’s clash had ended with all the gunmen killed.
Public health officials said at least nine people, including a child, had been killed and 36 wounded. Witnesses said the explosions had caused carnage among passers-by.
At the same time, Taliban fighters have stepped up the pressure on government forces across the country, from Baghlan province in the north, where they seized a district centre last week, to Farah in the southwest or Ghazni, south of Kabul.
Last year, the United States increased its support to struggling Afghan forces, announcing plans for thousands of additional advisers and more air strikes in a bid to force the Taliban to enter peace negotiations.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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