Suicide attackers storm Kabul aid agency as Taliban step up violence

One child and a driver were killed and five people injured after a suicide attack on an aid agency in Kabul on Friday, the third bloody assault to hit the Afghan capital in a week as insurgents stepped up a campaign of violence ahead of presidential elections.

The girl and the driver died when a suicide bomber detonated his car outside the Roots of Peace landmine charity in Kabul and four gunmen stormed the aid agency's office. Four civilians and a policeman were injured in the attack, said a spokesman for the chief of police, Hashmat Stanikzai.

At least six Afghan and foreign staff from the charity were trapped inside during the five hour-long assault, with armed guards trying to hold off the attackers as others hid, and special forces fighting their way inside.

"There were five attackers, one blew up a car bomb, three detonated suicide vests and one was shot by the police" said Hashmat Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief.

Mohammad Munir, 25, the brother of one of the aid workers trapped inside, struggled to hold down his emotions as he waited a few blocks away for news. He said: "My brother called me to say suicide attackers had entered the compound. He said 'if anything happens to me, please forgive me.'"

By early evening Munir's brother had called to say he had survived as 18 Afghans and foreigners were rescued from the compound. The assault began with a suicide bomb at the compound gate in the mid-afternoon, shaking nearby buildings and blasting out their windows.

The battle raged on into the evening, with heavy gunfire, grenade explosions and occasional larger blasts ripping through the neighbourhood. Shortly before the last attacker was killed, flames started rising from the building and fire engines arrived to fight the blaze.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they had targeted a church – although the agricultural aid group whose staff lived in the house does not have any religious links.

With the motto "turning mines to vines", Roots of Peace works with communities blighted by landmines to reclaim fields, improve yields and help farmers find more profitable markets.

Abdullah Dostzada, a 44-year-old shopkeeper whose home is just a block away from the attack, ran out into the street as the first bullets started flying to look for his sons, who were playing football outside. They had survived but were terrified by the violence.

"My youngest son asked me 'Dad, why didn't you say the suicide bomber was coming'. I had to tell him that the Taliban never give any warning, and now he doesn't want to go to school," he said.

Both Dostzada and Munir said they would probably stay away from the elections on 5 April to choose a new president – the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, cannot run again – if the bloodshed continues.

"My older sons and daughter all have voting cards, but life is sweet. So if it is going to carry on like this, of course we will not go and vote," the shopkeeper said. "All my neighbours, who are educated people, are saying the same thing."

The Taliban have denounced the vote as a sham and said anyone who works on it or goes to vote is risking their lives, and have been stepping up violence around the country, although most of the targets have not been linked to the election.

A bomb at a market place, a shooting in a luxury Kabul hotel and an attack on a bank are some of the latest bloody incidents around the country to claim hundreds of lives. A suicide squad also hit the Kabul provincial headquarters of the election organisers this week, just a few kilometres from Friday's attack.