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About 30 fighters wearing suicide vests and using AK-47s and grenades, have attacked government buildings in the Afghan city of Khost, the Taliban says.
Battles on Tuesday are ongoing and all roads in and out of the city in the southeastern Khost province are closed.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, in the capital, Kabul, said that a Taliban spokesman had told Al Jazeera that the 30 fighters were in the city of Khost targeting government buildings and police stations and checkpoints.
"The latest reports that we have is that Taliban forces are now holed up inside the municipality building in the centre of Khost city. They are surrounded by American special forces and Afghan security forces," she said.
"Two car bombings struck outside the governor's office as well as a police headquarters in the city."
"There were fierce gun battles between the Taliban and Afghan security forces."
Details of any casualties were not immediately available.
'Increase attacks'
The unnamed spokesman said that Khost was targeted because of the heavy US military presence there.
Khodr said that locations in other areas of the province, as well as Khost city, had been targeted.
"There have been four to five suicide bombers targeting a number of locations in Khost province," she reported.
In recent weeks, the Taliban has promised to step up attacks.
Last month, the group released a statement that said that from May 1 it would increase ambushes and attacks on government buildings and officials in response to the US administration's decision to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan.
Khodr said that the Taliban had been able to gain greater prominence in the Khost region because of falling backing for the government from tribal leaders in the area.
The US is sending about 21,000 extra troops to Afghanistan as part of the White House's plans to confront the growing power of the Taliban in the region.
A plan for Afghanistan by Barack Obama, the US president, calls for a military push to reverse deteriorating security, and an increase in civilian aid and development assistance.
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, met Obama last week in Washington to discuss their joint approach to fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.
PHOTO CAPTION
Afghan security personnel at the site of an explosion on the outskirts of Khost in March.
Al-Jazeera
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