Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen killed at least 19 people during an attack on a governor's compound in central Afghanistan with gun battles and several blasts heard before the assault was put down.
A witness reported hearing at least five explosions as Afghan security forces inside the compound of Parwan governor Abdul Basir Salangi fought back.
A statement by Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said 19 people, including five police, were killed and 37 wounded.
Parwan lies about an hour's drive northwest of the capital, Kabul, in a worrying sign of the reach of the Taliban and other insurgents.
Eight days ago, a rocket-propelled grenade fired by the Taliban brought down a NATO helicopter in another central Afghan province near Kabul, killing 30 US troops and eight Afghans in the worst single incident for foreign forces in 10 years of war.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Parwan attack.
An adviser to the Parwan police chief said a meeting involving the police chief, the governor ‘and some foreign advisers’ was under way when the attack was launched but said the attackers did not reach the meeting room.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said some of its troops had been in the vicinity but were not inside the compound when the attack took place.
There were no reports of ISAF casualties, a spokesman for the coalition said.
ISAF provided helicopter support while the attack was quelled, he said.
In a statement from the presidential palace, Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the Parwan attack.
