KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, July 2, (Agencies): Taleban suicide bombers and gunmen stormed a US contracting company office in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing five people including three foreigners and wounding 24 others, a senior official said.
The pre-dawn attack happened in relatively peaceful Kunduz province when insurgents attacked the newly opened offices of Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), provincial governor Mohammad Omar told Reuters.
In a statement, President Hamid Karzai said the raid was the work of “foreign paymasters” — a veiled reference to Pakistan and the links Afghanistan says Islamabad has with the Taleban.
One British citizen was killed during the fierce five-hour gunbattle that ensued, along with a German national and a Filipino, while two Afghans also died, Omar said.
“Our security forces managed to rescue around eight American workers inside the compound,” he said.
The latest attack comes as newly-appointed US and Nato forces commander General David Petraeus was due to arrive in the country to oversee the fight against the Taleban and try to reverse the insurgency’s momentum. Earlier, Nato said a western soldier died in a separate insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan.
According to its website (http://www.dai.com), the company is one of USAID’s principal service providers and specialises in post-conflict reconstruction, local government, agribusiness and natural resource management.
At least one of the bombers blew himself up in front of the gate to allow other fighters to push inside, triggering a fierce five-hour gunbattle with security guards and police who surrounded the building, Omar said.

The raid in Kunduz follows a similar pattern of brazen attacks by insurgents elsewhere in the country, with Taleban fighters trying to seize government or foreign-linked buildings before going down with guns blazing and suicide vests.
Afghan police and security guards battled insurgents for most of the morning before the attackers were killed, Omar said. Foreign workers fled to the roof of the five-story building for safety as the battle continued in floors below.
International troops helped Afghan security forces ferry wounded civilians to a nearby military base for emergency care, a coalition military spokeswoman said in a statement. A Taleban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said at least six suicide bombers and fighters were involved in the attack in a province mainly patrolled by German forces under Nato-command.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst despite the presence of some 150,000 foreign and over 100,000 Afghan troops and police. More than 100 foreign troops died in Afghanistan last month, the deadliest since the overthrow of the Taleban in 2001.
Insurgents have managed to infiltrate remote villages and districts in the province as they seek to push their reach and influence beyond traditional strongholds in the south ahead of a looming “surge” offensive by US-led coalition forces.
Northern Afghanistan has largely escaped the violence that blights the south, mainly because the population is dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, rather than the Pashtuns who make up the bulk of the Taleban.

In the past year, however, violence in the region has escalated as the Taleban converge on roads that bring supplies from Central Asia to military bases in Afghanistan.
DAI is a so-called “implementing partner” of Washington’s international aid arm USAID. It is believed to have opened its Kunduz operation about four months ago.
Such contractors are playing an increasingly important role in Afghanistan, using billions of dollars in aid pouring into the impoverished country in an effort to rebuild after 30 years of war.
The Taleban are stepping up attacks on foreign targets in reaction to intensified efforts by the US and Nato to rout the militants.
Friday’s attack came just days after Taleban gunmen attacked a major Nato base in the eastern city of Jalalabad, setting off a car bomb and firing rockets.
US aid contractors have been attacked across Afghanistan in recent months, hampering their efforts to recruit foreign staff as part of the “civilian surge” to speed development.
The US and Nato have 140,000 troops in Afghanistan, with most of the newly-deployed heading to the south as part of a US-led counter-insurgency strategy aimed at bringing the fight to the Taleban.
Nato said Friday that two of its soldiers had been killed in insurgent attacks, one in eastern Afghanistan, the other in the south, bringing the death toll so far this year to 325.