3 suicide attackers killed in eastern Afghanistan

Afghan police shot dead three suicide bombers attempting to target mayoral offices in the east of the country on Sunday, but a car bomb set up for the attack blew up, killing one worker, an official said.

"At around noon, three suicide attackers with an explosives-packed vehicle tried to enter the municipality building in Gardez and target the city hall, but they were stopped and killed by the police," Rohullah Samoon, spokesman for Paktia provincial governor told AFP.

He said the attackers left their bomb-rigged vehicle, which detonated before foreign troops were able to arrive to defuse it, killing one worker.

The eastern region of Afghanistan has been the focus of US-led Nato efforts in recent weeks, shifting from Taliban strongholds in the south towards the restive wild border with Pakistan where senior militants hold sway.

The United Nations says that violent incidents in the 10-year conflict were up by nearly 40 percent in the first eight months of this year compared to a year earlier.

Suicide attacks made up a greater proportion of the violence, with three such attacks reported each month in 2011, 50 percent more than last year. NATO's International Security Assistance Force disputes the figures, saying that by its tally violence is down by two percent over the same period.

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