A suicide assault team killed two Afghan security guards in an attack today on a construction company in the western Afghan city of Herat.
A small team of three to five men armed with suicide vests and assault rifles attacked a company that supplies Coalition forces in the west. The compound is just outside the main airport in Herat and is close to the Coalition’s main base in the western city.
Herat’s deputy police chief told AFP: “Five attackers were involved, two of them detonated at the beginning at the gates and the other three were shot dead by security forces.” The provincial spokesman for Herat told the BBC that one suicide bomber detonated at the gate and “at least two gunmen” then entered the compound and occupied offices before being shot and killed.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, in a statement released at Voice of Jihad, said four “mujahideen” carried out the attack, killing “12 foreign and internal enemy troops.”
“[T]he attack unfolded when one of the martyrdom seeking Mujahid (Hamza) blew up his SUV packed with some 300 kg explosives at the entry point, eliminating all the security barriers after which 3 more Mujahideen (Muhammad Yousuf, Farooq and Hafiz Yahya) equipped with heavy and light weapons as well as explosives vests rushed inside and initiated fighting against the enemy personnel,” the Taliban statement said.
Today’s attack was likely executed by fighters under the command of Samihullah, who leads a group of fighters known as the Mujahideen of Herat. Samihullah is closely allied with al Qaeda and works with the Ansar Corps, the Iranian Qods Force subcommand that directs Iranian operations in Afghanistan. Samihullah is known to facilitate the movement of al Qaeda fighters from Iran into Afghanistan.
The Taliban have executed two other high-profile attacks in Herat in the past 12 months. On May 30, a suicide assault team killed four Afghan civilians and a policeman during a complex attack on the Italian-run Provincial Reconstruction Team. And on Oct. 23, 2010, a suicide assault team failed in its attempt to storm the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Herat is one of four provinces and three cities that were transitioned to Afghan security forces control in March 2011.
