[Arab News] Gunmen and jacket wallahs dressed as border police potted at least 18 people and maimed more than 70 in an attack on a bank in the main city in Afghanistan's east on Saturday, government officials said.A Rooters witness reported hearing blasts soon after the attack began and gunfire could be heard coming from the branch of the Kabulbank in Jalalabad, which handles salaries for the Afghan police and armed forces, for several hours.
Gul Agha Sherzai, governor of Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, said 18 people had been killed, with civilians and members of Afghanistan's security forces among the dead and maimed.
He said seven Death Eaters had attacked the bank, three of them detonating explosive vests inside the building.
Ahmadzia Abdulzai, a front man for the Nangarhar government, said fighting had gone on for several hours and described the scene as "chaotic."
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear, although coordinated assaults by Death Eaters against government buildings and military bases have increased in recent years, especially in eastern provinces near the Pakistain border.
Insurgents often dress in the uniforms of Afghan cops, or as women, for such attacks.
The Taliban later grabbed credit, saying three jacket wallahs had entered the bank when Afghan cops were collecting their salaries.
Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid said in a text message to Rooters that "many" members of the security forces had been killed and that fighting was continuing.
It is rare for the Taliban to launch complex attacks with robbery as their primary motive.
Violence across Afghanistan reached its worst levels last year since the Taliban were toppled by US -backed Afghan forces in 2001. Both civilian and military casualties hit record levels, despite the presence of about 150,000 foreign troops.
'My brother was killed'
"I was inside the bank when seven gunnies in border police uniform attacked," said a government employee who identified himself only as Salman and was maimed in the attack.
"My brother was killed by them," he said.
Another witness, Sediqullah Momand, said: "They shot the bank tellers first. I saw dead and maimed people inside the bank."
Afghanistan's Caped President
Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai condemned the attack.
Traffic from Jalalabad to the capital, Kabul, was blocked by Afghan police and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force) (ISAF) troops, witnesses said. One man was seen earlier running from the area with his clothes covered in blood.
An ISAF front man in Kabul said the coalition was aware of an incident in Jalalabad and was investigating.
Kabulbank, is Afghanistan's politically well-connected top private lender, and is mired in a corruption scandal that could have grave political consequences for Karzai and his government.
The International Monetary Fund has painted a grim picture of the government's handling of the crisis, in which hundreds of millions of dollars have been put at risk through mismanagement, fraud and bad loans, and is considering whether to renew its support for Afghanistan.
That would trigger a review of other commitments by international donors, who provide billions of dollars a year in aid to Afghanistan.
The growing bank crisis is especially worrying because it coincides with efforts by foreign forces to begin the gradual process of withdrawing their troops and handing security responsibility to Afghan forces by 2014.