Suicide attack at Afghan police HQ kills 12

Two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms blew themselves up at an Afghan police headquarters Saturday, killing at least 12 officers and wounding 16 others. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which happened within 20 minutes of each other in the eastern Paktika province. Nawab Waziry, the head of Paktika's provincial council, said both men wore police uniforms and made it through three security gates before reaching the main building on the police compound. One attacker detonated his explosives inside the police headquarters building while the other blew himself up near the entrance, he said. There are lots of casualties, Waziry told the foreign news agency. The site was covered with blood.Gen. Daud Andarabi, the spokesman for the regional police commander in southeastern Afghanistan, said the blasts killed at least 12 officers. The attack took place in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan, where NATO and Afghan forces fight daily against the al-Qaida linked Haqqani network. The area is about 92 miles (150 kilometers) south of Kabul and borders the Pakistani region of North Waziristan. It is controlled largely by the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based Taliban faction. The border region has long been a refuge for Islamist extremists from around the world and has been the target of numerous drone strikes against the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Haqqani network forces. Jalaluddin and Sirajuddin Haqqani, a former anti-Soviet commander and his son, are now battling American forces in eastern Afghanistan.