Afghan attack: Eight killed, 16 injured

At least eight people, including five militants, were killed and 16 injured Thursday in a Taliban coordinated car bombing and shooting attack on a police station in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city, the interior ministry said.

"A six-member group of Taliban terrorists raided a police station in Jalalabad city at 5.30 a.m. and sharp reaction by the police have led to the killing of five terrorists so far, while the operation to kill another one is going on," Xinhua reported citing an interior ministry statement.

It also admitted that three more people, including two policemen and a civilian have been killed and 16 others, included 15 police personnel and a civilian, were injured.

The operation is continuing to kill or capture the remaining one terrorist, the statement added. Two blasts have rocked Jalalabad, the capital of the eastern Afghan province of Nagarhar, since the beginning of the deadly offensive, according to locals.

Meanwhile, one Zabihullah Mujahid, claiming to speak for the Taliban outfit in talks with media via telephone from an unknown location, claimed responsibility for the attack saying several police personnel, including the head of the police station, have been killed.

According to doctors in Jalalabad hospital, so far four bodies have been brought but that of chief of the police station was not among those.