Two suicide attackers dressed in burqas were shot dead yesterday as they attempted to enter the compound of a US-linked aid organisation in a southern Afghan town, officials said.
The male bombers were wearing explosives in vests beneath traditional women’s all-covering dress and opened fire on guards at the gates of International Relief and Development (IRD) in Lashkar Gah, the officials said.
“The two suicide bombers were shot and killed by the IRD guards, luckily their explosives did not explode,” provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.
Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, is 20km away from a major US-led offensive testing a new counter-insurgency strategy aimed at wiping out the Taliban and drug-trafficking cartels.
The interior ministry said no one else was killed or harmed in the thwarted attack, which happened around 9.45am.
But Ahmadi said two people employed by IRD were wounded.
The would-be suicide bombers had opened fire on police guarding the IRD gates, he said. “In the exchange of fire, a woman and a man working for IRD were wounded,” he said.
IRD implements projects on behalf of the US Agency for International Development, Ahmadi said, including helping farmers market their products.
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