Taleban storm Kabul police facility, setting off six-hour gun battle

KABUL (AP) - Taleban suicide bombers blew up a car and stormed Kabul traffic police headquarters before dawn on Monday, setting off a gunbattle that raged for six hours and left at least 10 people wounded, police said.

It was the second brazen raid inside the Afghan capital in less than a week, a sign that the insurgency is determined to keep carrying out such spectacular attacks even as the US and Afghan governments try to entice the Taliban into holding peace talks.

The raid started just before dawn when a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle at the gate of the traffic police department building, close to the Afghan parliament and the Kabul zoo, said the city's police chief, Mohammad Ayub Salangi.

Then, another two or three attackers "armed with suicide vests and heavy and light weapons entered the compound," said a statement from Mr Salangi's office.