Afghan police on Saturday killed all five militants who attacked the Election Commission headquarters in Kabul with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, ending a four-hour standoff, according to a top Government official.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault. It is the latest in a series of high-profile attacks by the militant movement as it steps up a campaign of violence to disrupt presidential elections due to be held in a week.
Deputy Interior Minister Mohammed Ayub Solangi said the attackers wore the all-encompassing burqa to sneak unnoticed into a building that looked on to the heavily fortified Independent Election Commission headquarters on the eastern edge of the capital.
They were never able to breach the heavily defended compound housing the commission itself, though two warehouses were hit and caught on fire. Two policemen were wounded in the firefight.
None of the dozens of employees and other people who had been hiding inside the election commission headquarters was injured, Solangi said. The compound is located near the Kabul International Airport. It was shut for more than two hours.