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Gunmen dressed as border police have killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 70 in an attack on a bank in the main city in Afghanistan's east, witnesses and government officials have said.
Al Jazeera has learned that at least seven bombers stormed a branch of the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad city on Saturday and detonated their explosives.
Baz Mohammad Sherzad, a senior health official in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, said nine deaths had been confirmed so far.
Fighting erupted soon after the attack and gunfire could be heard, according to witnesses.
Ahmadzia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the Nangarhar government, said police and civilians were among the casualties. He described the scene as "chaotic".
The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying bombers had entered the bank when Afghan security forces were collecting their salaries.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear, although coordinated assaults by the Taliban against government buildings and military bases have increased in recent years, especially in eastern provinces near the Pakistan border.
Taliban fighters often dress in the uniforms of Afghan security forces at the start of such attacks.
It is unlikely for the Taliban to launch complex attacks with robbery as their primary motive.
Violence across Afghanistan last year reached its worst levels since the Taliban were toppled by US-backed Afghan forces in 2001, with civilian and military casualties at record levels, despite the presence of about 150,000 foreign troops.
PHOTO CAPTION
Afghan men wait to withdraw money from the Kabul Bank in Kabul in 2010.
Al-Jazeera
