Taliban attacks British security firm in Kabul

Taliban extremists claimed responsibility for an attack in Afghanistan’s capital Wednesday that killed at least six people at a British security firm. The incident in Kabul injured at least 32 others. A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed truck into the gate of the G4S security compound, and several other armed militants then stormed inside. G4S, one of several foreign security contractors in the country, provides guards for the area around the British Embassy in Kabul. Five of the dead were G4S employees, including one British national, the company confirmed in a statement. Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh said four insurgents also died in the fighting.

The Taliban said it attacked in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike just hours earlier in the southern Helmand province. The Taliban lost 16 of its fighters in the clash, and at least 30 others reportedly died, many of them civilians. U.S. military spokesman Maj. Bariki Mallya confirmed an American aircraft carried out the airstrike after receiving a call to back up Afghan special forces facing heavy Taliban fire.