7 killed in eastern Afghanistan attack

Kabul, May 10 (Xinhua-ANI): Three policemen and four militants were killed Thursday morning when militants launched an attack on police checkpoints in YahyaKhil district of eastern Paktika province, a provincial police source said.

"Four militants armed with suicide vests and weapons stormed police checkpoints around the Yahyakhil administrative district office building at about 8 a.m. local time Thursday and the attackers intended to target the compound," provincial police chief Daulat Khan told Xinhua.

He said all attackers were killed as police repelled the attack and no government employees or civilians were injured during the fight near the compound.

"Our police professionally repelled the attack but regrettably three of our brave policemen were martyred in the incident," the police official said, adding two policemen were also injured during the fight lasting for a while in the province bordering Pakistan.

Taliban insurgents, whose regime was toppled in a U.S.-led incursion in late 2001, have claimed responsibility for the incident.

Five employees of the Afghan Education Ministry were killed and seven others injured on Tuesday when the Taliban attacked a convoy carrying the ministry's staff members in Paktika's Urgun district.

The Taliban insurgent group announced on May 2 that they would launched a spring rebel offensive dubbed "Al-Farooq" from May 3 across the country, saying their targets are foreign and Afghan troops as well as legislators and government functionaries. (Xinhua-ANI)