Foreign intelligence behind deadly Taliban attack: Afghan government (Roundup)

The Afghanistan interior ministry has accused foreign intelligence of organising the attack on the eastern Jalalabad city Thursday, which left 18 people, including 10 police personnel dead, and 15 others wounded.

"Aimed at destabilising the country, the terrorists and their supporters outside Afghanistan in the continuation of subversive activities targeted a police station in Jalalabad city Thursday," the interior ministry's said in a statement released after the deadly attack.

The statement said that since the Pakistani government reached a ceasefire with Taliban militants in the country, the madrassas or religious schools on the Pakistani border have been closed and the Taliban or religious students have been sent to Afghanistan to conduct terrorist attacks and disrupt the security for the coming presidential elections, Xinhua reported.

"Seven Taliban terrorists equipped with suicide vests and assault rifles raided a police station in Afghanistan's eastern Jalalabad city, the capital of Nangarhar province and 120 km east of Kabul, at 5.30 a.m. The police retaliated during which all the seven attackers were killed," Nangarhar police chief Fazal Ahmad Shirzad said earlier.

Ten police personnel and a student were also killed in the clash which lasted for more than two hours, he said.

Fourteen police personnel and a journalist were among those who sustained injuries during the clash, the police chief added.

The building of national television in Jalalabad city and the police station were badly damaged.