The Latest: Death toll in Afghanistan attack rises to 16
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on developments in Afghanistan (all times local):
11:55 a.m.
An Afghan provincial spokesman says the death toll from a militant attack on a construction company near a main airport in the country’s east has risen to 16.
Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor in eastern Nangarhar province, says that along with the 16 killed, nine other people were wounded when the militants launched a suicide bombing and stormed a construction company near the airport outside Jalalabad, the provincial capital.
He says the attack started around 5 a.m. and lasted until 10:30 a.m. Khogyani says there were five attackers, two of whom detonated their suicide vests while three others were shot and killed by the security forces.
He says the fighting has ended but a clear-up operation is still underway.
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10:30 a.m.
An Afghan official says militants set off a suicide blast and stormed a construction company near the main airport in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, killing at least 4 people.
The province’s police chief, Gen. Ghulam Sanayee Stanikzai, says five people were also wounded when the bomber, who was on foot, detonated his explosives at the gate of the company on Wednesday morning.
Stanikzai says several other attackers then stormed inside the company where a gunbattle is underway now. He says the casualty toll could rise further.
The police chief also says that U.S. forces have arrived at the scene.
No one has claimed immediately the attack but both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially in Nangarhar province.
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