HERAT: Four Taliban suicide bombers dressed as police and women attacked the main United Nations compound in western Afghanistan Saturday, officials said, but there were no casualties among UN staff. The attack with rockets, machine guns and bombers hit the UN compound in Herat, a commercial hub and the largest city in the country's west where Taliban and other Islamist insurgents are usually less active than in other areas. Afghan forces and UN security guards at the compound repelled the insurgents. Two attackers, including a car bomber, blew themselves up at the entrance and another detonated his bomb just inside, while a fourth was shot and killed, police, government and UN officials said. “This was a complex attack with rockets, machine guns plus suicide bombers. The attack was repelled, they did not succeed,” UN envoy to Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura told Reuters. “No UN staff were wounded,” he said. Two Afghan police officers were reportedly wounded in the attack, he said. At least one of the attackers was dressed in all-encompassing burqas worn by many Afghan women and others were in local Afghan police uniforms. No ground troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were involved in the operation to clear the compound after the attack, spokesman Major Michael Johnson said. A Taliban commander, Mullah Bilal, claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of the group. One fighter had blown himself up and others had entered the compound, he told Reuters by telephone.
