Gunmen Storm Government Building in Afghanistan

Gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed a government building in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday and engaged in a shootout with Afghan security forces who surrounded the compound, officials said.

The attack came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber infiltrated the capital's main military hospital and killed at least six Afghan medical students.

In Sunday's incident, one guard was killed as the attackers -- three or four men armed with guns and wearing explosives strapped to their bodies -- shot their was into the traffic department compound on the edge of Khost city at about 5 a.m., said Gen. Raz Mohammad Oryakhail, the army commander for Khost province.

The gun battle was still going on more than two hours later, with the assailants inside the second floor of the building and shooting down at police and soldiers outside, he said.

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