Deadly Attack by Insurgents in Kandahar

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents staged a complicated attack in Kandahar on Saturday that killed four, including an intelligence officer, a police officer and two civilians, and wounded 45 people.

A 7-year-old girl who was shot in the back and her father being evacuated Saturday by helicopter. The assault lasted six hours.

Three of the wounded were in critical condition, according to doctors at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar.

The insurgents’ force included at least six suicide bombers who took over buildings near the governor’s office and another near the governor’s home, as well as one near the intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security. Early Sunday, the situation remained tense, with civilian cars blocked from using the roads, shops closed and the police guarding every crossroad as helicopters roared overhead.

Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar Province, said on Saturday that it had been a “hard day for Kandahari people.”

The attack, which lasted more than six hours, came just two weeks after a jailbreak in which nearly 500 prisoners escaped, most from the secure section of the prison where Taliban detainees are held.

Late Saturday, explosions and gunfire could still be heard, and at least one insurgent was still fighting near a traffic intersection, residents said. But it appeared possible there were also insurgents elsewhere in the city.

It was the first major attack since the killing of Osama bin Laden by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan on Monday.

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