Two suicide attackers dressed in burqas were killed in a gunfight outside the offices of a US aid group in Afghanistan on Wednesday near the site of a major US-led military operation.
Three people, including two foreigners, were wounded in the shoot-out with guards at the International Relief and Development (IRD) compound in Lashkar Gah, capital of volatile Helmand province, Afghan officials said.
"The two suicide bombers were shot and killed by the IRD guards. Luckily their explosives did not explode," provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP.
"Three people working for IRD have been wounded in today's incident," he said.
"An Afghan woman working for IRD has been seriously wounded, a foreign woman and a foreign man have also been wounded," he added.
A spokesman for the British embassy in Kabul said the wounded man was a British national working for a private security firm.
The nationality of the injured foreign woman could not be immediately confirmed.
Lashkar Gah is 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of the battleground of US-led Operation Mushtarak, "Together" in Dari, which is testing a new counter-insurgency strategy aimed at wiping out the Taliban and drugs cartels.
The male bombers were wearing explosives-packed vests beneath traditional women's all-covering dress when they arrived at IRD on a motorised tricycle at about 9.45 am (0515 GMT), Ahmadi said.
"They had a ladder with them and they climbed over the wall using the ladder. When they jumped into the compound, they were shot by the guards," he said.
"Police arrived on the scene within minutes and this whole thing was wrapped up in 10 minutes," he said, adding that city authorities had intelligence that such an attack was imminent and "so we were on alert".
The interior ministry had said earlier there were no casualties besides the thwarted attackers.
"Two (male) suicide bombers... started firing on the police guards and in a return of fire by the national police within moments, both suicide attackers were killed, it said.
Police seized two assault rifles and two suicide vests filled with explosives, it added.
IRD implements projects on behalf of the US Agency for International Development, Ahmadi said, including helping farmers market their products, improving food security and other agriculture-related projects.
Helmand is a hotbed of Taliban militancy, with the movement waging an increasingly virulent insurgency since its regime was overthrown in the 2001 US-led invasion following the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Helmand provincial police chief Assadullah Shairzad said that two hours after the attempted attack at IRD, another would-be suicide attacker blew himself up as he tried to put on a suicide vest.
"His explosives went off, killing him," Shairzad said. The interior ministry said the daughter of the landlord of the house where the bomber blew himself up was injured in the explosion.
The United States and NATO are raising to 150,000 the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan by August under a strategy marrying military and civilian efforts to eradicate the militant presence and establish Afghan sovereignty.
The strategy is being tested in Helmand's Marjah and Nad Ali districts, where poppy-production is controlled by Taliban and drug traffickers in areas that have long been outside government control.
Operation Mushtarak is regarded by military planners as an initial success, but a Western official told AFP it would be many months before it is clear if the Taliban have pulled back for good.
Two British soldiers were killed in Helmand by a crude bomb on Tuesday, Britain's Ministry of Defence said, adding they were not involved in Mushtarak.
The bombs, known as IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, are the main weapon used by Taliban rebels, though suicide attacks are becoming more common.
Copyright 2010 AFP South Asian Edition
