Attack on UN compound fails

The militants tried unsuccessfully to blow up the gate with the rocket so they could drive the car inside the compound, he said. When that didn’t work, three of the militants got out of the car and the fourth blew up the vehicle. The explosion destroyed the gate, allowing the three to get inside.

“The three attackers were wearing police uniforms covered with burqas,’’ Dilawar said. “All of them had suicide vests and AK-47s.’’

Militants sometimes wear burqas or police uniforms as a disguise. The Interior Ministry denied that the attackers were wearing police uniforms.

Guards at the compound and Afghan police who responded to the site engaged in sporadic gunfights with the three attackers, who were killed by Afghan security forces. NATO forces also responded, a statement by the United Nations said.

“The attack did not disrupt the United Nations activities and no United Nations personnel were injured,’’ the statement said. “The United Nations will continue to maintain its presence and programs in Herat for the benefit of the population in need and in support of the Afghan authorities.’’

Two Afghan guards were wounded, the statement said.

The attack was similar to one in July in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. Taliban suicide attackers used a car to blow a hole in the wall of a compound of a contractor for the US Agency for International Development in an attack that killed a Briton, a German, and two Afghans. Five men wearing suicide bomb vests poured into the compound and fought a five-hour gun battle with Afghan security forces before being killed.

In October 2009, Taliban militants attacked a guesthouse used by United Nations workers in central Kabul. Eight people were killed, including five foreigners working for the United Nations.

Separately, NATO forces killed two civilians, including a teenage boy, during a fight with insurgents yesterday in Wardak province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Mohammad Halim Fidai, the governor of the province. Fidai condemned the killings. The deaths prompted hundreds of residents to stage a demonstration that blocked a highway for nearly an hour.