“There were three explosions that (were) suicide attacks and then two more suicide bombers attacked the district police building,” interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.
Afghan security forces killed those two attackers, he said.
The bombers’ target may a been a group of elders and district chiefs who were meeting nearby to elect delegates to attend next week’s ‘Loya Jirga’ in Kabul, a traditional gathering of community representatives. The Taleban has said it would target anyone involved in the meeting.
Thursday’s attack was the latest in a string of lethal assaults across Afghanistan.
On Sunday, soon after prayers for Muslim festival Eid Al-Adha, a suicide bomber killed seven civilians outside a mosque in the north of the country, while a suicide car bomber killed 13 foreigners and four Afghans in a high-profile attack in Kabul in late October.
President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers have agreed that all foreign combat troops would return home by the end of 2014, but the West has promised continued support beyond then in the form of funds and training for Afghan security forces.
Despite the presence of tens of thousands of Western soldiers in Afghanistan, the United Nations and other groups say violence is at its worst since US-led Afghan forces toppled the Taleban from power in late 2001.
NATO-led forces say they have seen a decline over recent months in attacks launched by insurgents against their troops.
