Afghan gunmen kill 7, wounds 12

17 May 2012, 9:32 pm   -   Source: AAP

Afghanistan's security problems have been underlined as suicide attackers stormed a government compound in the country's southwest.

Gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms and wearing suicide vests have stormed a government compound, killing seven people and wounding 12 others, police say.

The four attackers targeted the offices of Governor Mohammad Ikhpolwak in Farah, capital of the southwestern province Farah, which borders Iran and is considered a troublespot for the decade-old Taliban insurgency.

The assault underscored major security challenges as Afghanistan heads to a NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday with a demand for $US4.1 billion ($A4.15 billion) a year to bankroll its security forces after Western troops pull out in 2014.

"Four suicide bombers in Afghan police uniforms armed with suicide vests and rocket-propelled grenades today attacked a government compound in Farah, exchanging fire with police," said provincial deputy security chief Mohammad Ghaus Malyar on Thursday.

"Seven people were killed - six police and one civilian - and 12 were wounded including three policemen and nine civilians."

Officials said the four attackers also died.

Two of the attackers detonated their suicide vests and the other two were shot dead by police, said interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

The ministry blamed the attack on "terrorists", a phrase Afghan officials use to refer to Taliban insurgents and other militants.

The Taliban frequently target government compounds.

Farah is a volatile area where remnants of the Taliban ousted from power in the 2001 US-led invasion are fighting to bring down the Western-backed government.

Earlier this month, Afghanistan and the United States signed a "strategic partnership" mapping relations between Kabul and Washington from 2014 to 2024.

The pact does not specify the funding to be provided for the Afghan forces. Kabul is looking to the Chicago summit to set the annual figure of $4.1 billion in stone.

"This is not charity. Afghanistan is and will be on the frontline of the world's fight against terrorism," Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin told journalists this week.

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