Gunmen Raid U.N. Afghan Office

Gunmen attacked the office of the United Nations refugee agency here Monday, throwing a grenade and firing shots but causing no injuries, on a violent day that also saw U.S. forces engage in a firefight and bombard a secret drugs laboratory.

The attack on the U.N. office shortly after 9 p.m., was just the latest in a series of assaults on the world body and other aid organizations that have made much of the south and east of the country a no-go area for development workers.

"We were sitting outside the gate when the car pulled up," said Abdul Rehman, a security guard at the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Kandahar, once the stronghold of the Taliban. "First they threw the grenade and then opened fire."

The attackers, seated in a car, sped away when police and security staff who had been sitting in a nearby tent rushed to the scene and returned fire, Rehman said.

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a U.N. spokesman in Kabul, confirmed the guard's account of the attack, though he said it was unclear if fire was returned.

"There were no victims," he told AP. "There was no one in the office at the time."

Earlier Monday, police in neighboring Zabul province said suspected Taliban militants had kidnapped an Afghan aid worker.

Zabul police chief Haji Mohammed Hayub said two local people were shot and injured when they tried in vain to stop the attackers from seizing the man and his car. One, hit in the face, was seriously hurt.

"They stole the vehicle and took the driver," Hayub said. "We're trying to find them."

Mullah Abdul Hakim Latifi, a Taliban spokesman, called The Associated Press to claim responsibility.

"He is in our custody. He is safe," Latifi said of the Afghan, who was a driver for the Christian emergency relief group Shelter for Life.

Zabul has been a hotbed of activity for Taliban militants, who have repeatedly targeted construction workers and aid agencies on the newly refurbished Kabul-Kandahar highway.

A Turkish engineer working on the road was abducted in October, and two Indians were kidnapped Dec. 6. All were subsequently released unharmed.

Meanwhile, in southern Uruzgan province, American and Afghan troops raided a compound, sparking a firefight in which one suspect was wounded, the U.S. military said Monday.

The raid took place Sunday morning near Deh Rawood, spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty told AP.

Uruzgan officials said the raid was in response to an attack on a U.S. convoy on Saturday that injured two American soldiers. Hilferty denied such an incident, but offered no other explanation for Sunday's operation.

Troops including special forces came under small arms fire as they moved in, Hilferty said. None were injured.

"We cleared the compound, placing under custody several personnel, including one wounded man," Hilferty said.

Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammed Khan told AP that the house belonged to Haji Ghulam Nabi, a tribal leader who Khan said had close ties to the former Taliban regime. Three of his relatives were detained, but Nabi appeared to have evaded capture, Khan said.

The U.S. military also said it carried out an airstrike on an illegal drugs laboratory in the far north of the country.

An A-10 ground attack aircraft was called in to destroy the facility on Friday, some 90 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Kunduz, Hilferty said. The facility contained about 1.5 tons of opium, a half-ton of chemicals and processing equipment, he said.

Hilferty provided no information on any fighting, but provincial governor Mohammed Aman Henneini told AP that one of 11 people detained was shot and injured when he tried to flee.

Cultivation of opium poppies, the raw material for heroin, is booming in the north of Afghanistan, which already produces some three-quarters of the world's opium.

U.N. experts worry that Afghanistan could become a "narco-state" if the lucrative trade — believed to finance the activities of warlords and anti-government militants including the Taliban — isn't tackled.

Some 11,700 soldiers from the United States and other countries remain in Afghanistan to fight suspected Taliban and al Qaeda guerillas. But reports of raids on drug facilities or smugglers are rare.

By Noor Khan