KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide bomber and another attacker struck a local TV station Tuesday in Kabul, killing at least two guards in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the a male and a female security guard at Shamshad TV were killed in the attack, adding both attackers were killed by security forces. He said police rescued some of the TV staff as the attack was unfolding but he did not elaborate.
Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Mujro said 21 people wounded in the attack were taken to hospitals.
"The attackers had military uniforms on," Gen. Salim Hassas said. One attacker blew himself up at the gate of the station's compound while the second reached the second floor of the TV building, where he was killed, Hassas said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied involvement in the attack. The IS-linked Aamaq news outlet said the Islamic State group was behind the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks militant postings.
Afghanistan's Islamic State affiliate has carried out several attacks in recent years, mainly targeting the country's Shiite minority, which the Sunni extremists view as apostates. The IS affiliate is largely made up of disenchanted insurgents who left the much larger and more well-established Taliban.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan on Tuesday, gunmen killed two people in the western city of Herat, including a provincial council member, Gelani Farhad, spokesman for the provincial governor, said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.
In the eastern Maidan Wardak province, authorities said they repelled a Taliban attack on a police training center.
Abdul Rahman Mangul, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said a suicide car bomber struck near the gate to the base and a battle broke out between security forces and insurgents. He said no Afghan forces were harmed, but a number of insurgents were killed, without providing an exact figure.
"Their attack was repelled by the police forces and they were defeated," Mangul said.
The Taliban claimed the attack.
NATO aims to send 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan
BRUSSELS (AP) - NATO's chief said the alliance plans to send around 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan, half of them from the United States, to bolster efforts to train the Afghan army.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that the current NATO troop level "is around 13,000. The new level will be around 16,000."
He said the troops won't conduct combat operations but help to train and assist the Afghan security forces, notably to train special forces and build up the conflict-torn country's air force.
Stoltenberg said around half the new troops would come from the United States, the rest from the other 28 NATO member nations.