Kabul: Taliban attack on NATO contractor compound kills at least eight

Five guards at a Kabul guesthouse for US engineers and military contractors and several civilians were killed in a pre-dawn suicide bomb attack on Tuesday.

The Afghan Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Around 4:30 a.m., a Taliban militant detonated a truck bomb at the entrance to the compound, which is operated by C3PO, an international logistics company that supplies NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Three more militants ran into the compound and exchanged fire with the guesthouse guards and then Afghan security forces. All three attackers were killed in the hour-long gun battle.

According to the LA Times:

In recent weeks, insurgents have ramped up attacks on both military and civilian targets, with several of the assaults and bombings occurring in the capital.

In June, Taliban insurgents stormed the presidential palace compound in Kabul, killed 17 people in front of the Afghan Supreme Court with a car bomb and attacked the Kabul International Airport.