Nine killed in attack

KABUL (AP):Three militants wearing explosives-rigged vests killed at least nine civilians, most of them children, in a botched attack yesterday on the Indian consulate in an eastern Afghan city near the border with Pakistan.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault in the city of Jalalabad, and the Afghan Taliban denied in a text message that it had carried out the attack.

Militant groups based in Pakistan have been blamed for past violence targeting Indian interests in Afghanistan, including two attacks on the embassy in Kabul in 2008 and 2009.

Yesterday's attack began when two men wearing explosive vests got out of a car as it approached a checkpoint outside the consulate, prompting a police guard to immediately open fire on them.

As the two sides exchanged fire, a third militant still in the car detonated a large bomb inside the vehicle.

The blast killed nine bystanders and wounded another 24 people, including a policeman.

Six of the dead and three of the wounded were children. All three attackers also died, although it was not clear how many were killed by police fire and how many by the explosion.