Six suicide bombers attacked a USAID compound on Friday in northern Afghanistan, killing at least four people and wounding several others, officials said.
Two of the dead were foreigners.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which began about 3.30 am when a suicide car bomber detonated a sports utility vehicle at the compound’s entrance.
An Afghan security guard was killed in the blast, said General Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, chief of the police in Kunduz province.
Five other attackers then stormed a building used by Development Alternatives Inc. —a Washington-based global consulting company — that has a contract with the United States Agency for International Aid, or USAID, to work on governance and community development in the area.
An Afghan policeman and two foreign workers — one from Germany and the other from the Philippines — were killed in the fighting, said General Murad Ali Murad, a commander for the Afghan National Army. The bodies of five suicide attackers were recovered from two floors of the building.
In Berlin, a spokesman for Germany’s foreign ministry confirmed a German citizen had been killed in the Kunduz attack but did not elaborate. He was speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. —AP