36 dead as Taliban attack Afghan road company

The Taliban attacked an Afghan road construction company early Thursday, triggering an hours-long firefight that killed 36 people and wounded another 20 in the worst single attack for months. The attack happened in the eastern province of Paktia, which borders Pakistan, at around 2:00am (2130 GMT Wednesday) and lasted for several hours, a provincial spokesman said.
It is thought to be the highest single death toll in a Taliban attack since the militant Islamists struck at a bank in Jalalabad, also in the east, in February, killing 38 people including police collecting their salaries. "A large group of Taliban attacked a road construction company in Paktia province," said Paktia provincial spokesman Rohullah Samoon.
"Thirty-five guards and staff of the company were killed and 20 were injured. There were casualties on the Taliban side as well." Samoon added that eight Taliban were killed. The director of the Afghan company targeted, Galaxy Sky, told AFP that the death toll was in fact 36 and included a Pakistani national.
"They (the Taliban) destroyed a lot of our equipment including vehicles and equipment used for road construction," Noorullah Bidar said. "We don't know why they attacked us... they are doing this to prevent reconstruction in Afghanistan." Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the movement carried out the attack, killing 40 people and torching four vehicles. He did not mention any Taliban casualties. The militia is known frequently to exaggerate its claims. The militants have made Afghan government projects a prime target in a bid to undermine the authority of President Hamid Karzai's administration and have repeatedly kidnapped foreign road construction workers from camps in the past.
The Taliban have been waging a 10-year battle to evict foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan in the wake of the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled their extremist Islamist regime from power for sheltering Osama bin Laden. The attack comes a few weeks after they announced the start of their annual spring offensive at the end of April. There are currently around 130,000 US-led international troops in the troubled country although limited troop withdrawals are due to start from a handful of safer areas in July.