Attackers hit US-run base in Kandahar: Police

KANDAHAR: Taliban armed with guns and explosives struck a US-run base in Kandahar on Thursday, where blasts and gunfire reverberated in the southern Afghan city, police and witnesses said.

A group of "three to four" armed men, possibly with suicide vests, had taken up positions in an empty compound that was once used by the USAID development agency and were firing on the base, according to police.

A NATO spokesman in Kandahar said the military had reports that one civilian foreign national and one Afghan soldier had been wounded in the attack.

"They have parked two explosives-laden motorcycles and one minivan near the compound... police have arrived at the scene and are trying to diffuse the explosives," said police spokesman Ghorzang, who goes by only one name.

He said five explosions had been heard at the base, but it was not immediately clear who had caused them.

The road leading to the base had been blocked, but a witness who owns a nearby shop said he had also heard sporadic gunfire.

"The armed men have taken position in a building near the PRT (provincial reconstruction team) base and are firing on the base," said shop owner Abdullah. PRT missions are made up of military and civilian officials.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said the gunmen were armed with suicide vests.

"A group of our men have attacked Kandahar PRT base, as well as an NDS (Afghan intelligence) office nearby. Our men are very well armed, they are suicide attackers," said spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi.

The Taliban militia, which has been leading a bloody insurgency since US-led troops ousted them from power in late 2001, has increasingly carried out coordinated attacks on high-profile Western and government targets.

The attack in the Taliban's old capital comes a day after a government body announced a new list of provinces likely to see handovers from NATO to Afghan control as part of a timetable for the departure of foreign forces.

President Hamid Karzai will declare the impending transfer of up to 17 areas, as plans for Afghanistan to take over security by 2014 move forward, pushed on by Western leaders facing electorates demanding an end to the war.

A first round of handovers took place in July in areas already largely free of US-led NATO forces, but experts say the next phase, for which no timetable has been announced, will prove a bigger task.

The number of areas due for transition is far greater than last time, putting an increasing burden on the still fledgling Afghan security forces even if some of the places are remote with relatively limited Taliban influence.