2 Afghans dead in suicide attack near NATO base

Two Afghan guards were killed Thursday when suicide bombers and attackers besieged the offices of a logistics company working with foreign forces, close to the NATO-led force's western HQ. Foreign forces were deployed to quash the attack at the offices of Monaco-based international firm ES-KO on the outskirts of Herat city, where NATO troops passed control to Afghan forces four months ago.  It happened a few hundred metres (yards) from ISAF's headquarters in western Afghanistan, which is Italian-led, as well as Herat's airport. The attack raises fresh questions about security in the relatively peaceful province, which was handed over in July as part of plans for the 140,000 mainly-US foreign troops to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014. "Five attackers were involved, two of them detonated at the beginning at the gates and the other three were shot dead by security forces during the operation," said Delawar Shah Delawar, Herat province's deputy police chief. "It's over now," he said, adding that two Afghan guards of the company were killed. A spokesman for ISAF in western Afghanistan who declined to be quoted by name said it had provided ground and air support to the operation, which took place outside the compound of Regional Command West. He could not confirm casualties. Provincial spokesman Mohayddin Noori said that ISAF helicopters were involved in the operation. Noor Khan Nekzad, a regional police spokesman, said foreign forces killed the insurgents but the ISAF spokesman, who did not want to be named, could not confirm this. An AFP reporter at the scene said he saw a wounded Italian soldier walking away from the area where the attack happened. One witness, who did not give his name, told AFP he saw several wounded people evacuated after two men with guns and rocket-propelled grenades ran into the office and opened fire. Attacks on contractors working with ISAF happen relatively frequently in Afghanistan. ES-KO works at a number of locations in Afghanistan and recent projects have included extending the runway at Herat airport. The Taliban, leaders of the decade-long insurgency in Afghanistan since the late 2001 US-led invasion ousted them from power, were not immediately reachable for comment. The attack came the day after President Hamid Karzai told a regional conference in Istanbul that there was no hope for peace in Afghanistan without help from neighbours such as Pakistan, where insurgents have rear bases.