(10 Apr 2012) PLEASE NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT
1. Various of Afghan security forces at the site of suicide attack
2. Mid of suicide bomber's vehicle wreckage ++GRAPHIC++
3. SOUNDBITE (Dari) General Sayed Agha Saqib, Herat provincial Police Chief:
"So far we have reports of nine deaths and over 12 wounded."
4. Close of blood stain on the ground
5. Wide of police hosing down the attack site
6. Mid of ambulance passing
7. Various of wounded victims in hospital ward ++GRAPHIC++
STORYLINE:
A suicide bomber blew up a four-wheel-drive vehicle during rush hour on Tuesday outside a government office in Herat in western Afghanistan, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 20, authorities said.
It was the second suicide bombing on Tuesday of government offices in Afghanistan.
Two men and a woman wearing a burqa were found dead inside the vehicle that exploded at the gate of a district headquarters building where people were queuing to go inside.
The Afghan Ministry of the Interior said 11 people were killed and 22 were wounded, but local police put the initial death toll at nine dead and twelve wounded.
Different casualty tolls are common in the immediate aftermath of such attacks.
Reports indicate that three of the dead are Afghan policemen.
Initial reports had said only one suicide bomber was inside the vehicle, and officials could not say which of the three occupants detonated the explosives.
Barriers at the blast site were blackened and investigators examined charred remains of what was left of the vehicle.
Several of the wounded were taken in the back of police pickup trucks to a nearby hospital.
Rescue workers wrapped those killed in white sheets and carried them from the site.
The attack occurred between Herat city, the provincial capital, and the main airport in the area, which is located in Guzara district.
Herat province, as well as most of western Afghanistan, is relatively calm as insurgents have concentrated their attacks in the country's south and east.
The responsibility for nearly all of the province has been transferred, or is in the process of being transferred, from NATO troops to Afghan forces.
Earlier in the day, four policemen were killed at the local police office in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province in the south as militants step up attacks across the country with the arrival of spring temperatures, authorities said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks in telephone messages to the media.
Militants have been targeting Afghan and NATO security forces as they fight to assert their power and undermine US efforts to try to build up Afghan forces.
Afghanistan's police and army are increasingly shouldering the job of providing security with the planned exit of most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
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