Blasts, gunfire rock Kabul

Explosions and gunfire echoed through Kabul after near-simultaneous Taliban assaults on two security compounds yesterday, as the insurgents intensify attacks even before the start of their annual spring offensive.

At least three people were killed and 38 wounded in the carnage, which underscores rising insecurity in Afghanistan from the resurgent Taliban.

A suicide car bomber struck an Afghan police precinct in western Kabul and a gunbattle ensued, the interior ministry said, in a continuing attack which sent clouds of acrid smoke billowing into the sky.

Five minutes later a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of an Afghan intelligence agency branch in eastern Kabul as another attacker was gunned down while trying to enter the compound, the ministry added.

After the car bomber hit the police station "another attacker who entered the building has taken position inside. Security forces are still engaged in fighting," a ministry official told AFP.

The Taliban claimed both assaults, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid calling them "martyrdom attacks" in a Twitter message.

The health ministry said the wounded, some of them in critical condition, had been rushed to hospitals.

"More casualties are expected as the ambulances are on their way," ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh told AFP.

Afghan police and troops are battling a resurgent Taliban as the insurgents escalate nationwide attacks, even in winter months when the fighting usually wanes.

Repeated bids to launch peace negotiations have failed, and an intense new fighting season is expected to begin in the spring.

The latest violence comes two days after an Afghan policeman linked to the Taliban shot dead 11 of his colleagues at a checkpoint in the southern province of Helmand, in the latest so-called insider attack.