6 killed as militants attack NATO compound in Kabul

PanARMENIAN.Net - Militants blew up a suicide car bomb at the gate to a NATO compound in Kabul early Tuesday, July 2 and attacked guards with small-arms fire, killing four guards and two civilians, police said. All four suicide attackers were also killed, The Associated Press reported.

Kabul provincial police chief Mohammad Ayuob Salangi said the powerful car bomb blew up at about 4:30 a.m., leaving a deep crater at the first gate leading into the camp. Two truck drivers who were waiting to enter the area were killed in the blast, he said.

Three other suicide attackers wearing explosive vests then began fighting with guards; all were killed. Salangi said the guards killed were all Nepalese contractors.

He had no further details immediately and said the attack is being investigated.

It happened after the Interior Ministry announced Monday that insurgents had killed nearly 300 Afghan local and national police in one month, illustrating how casualties among local forces are mounting now that NATO-led coalition troops have handed over responsibility for combat operations.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters that 299 police were killed in the last month, and another 618 were wounded. The Defense Ministry said it did not have monthly figures for the number of Afghan soldiers killed.

In the same time span, Sediqqi said 753 militants were killed in joint operations with the military and others, and more than 300 were arrested. Also, 180 civilians were killed.

Sediqqi did not provide comparison figures from previous months, but The Associated Press said that according to its count, the violence this year is similar to its highest levels in nearly 12 years of war.