Attackers hurled a hand grenade at the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad, damaging a wall of the building and shattering windows, Afghan police said Sunday. No injuries were reported.
The drive-by attack occurred late Saturday in the city, capital of the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, Gul Karim, the provincial police chief, said by satellite telephone.
Witnesses spotted four people driving by the consulate in two cars. The hand grenade was tossed into the building from one of the cars before they sped away, Karim said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The consulate was closed at the time of the attack. The blast left a hole in the front perimeter wall of the building and broke some windows inside, Karim said.
Four Afghan men were detained after they were caught speeding on a road near the consulate immediately after the explosion. They were being investigated, Karim said.
Past attacks targeting aid workers and U.N. agency offices in Jalalabad have been blamed on Taliban.
**Mullah Omar may Lead Taliban Resistance, Say Afghanistan Officials***
Mullah Omar, supreme leader of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban movement, maybe is personally leading recent resistance operations in a southern border province, where Afghan and US troops are conducting a joint cleanup operation, a military official has said.
Fierce fighting has erupted between government troops, backed by US helicopters and jet fighters, and Taliban guerrillas in Dai Chupan district of Zabul province, said Haji Janan, a commander of the Afghan Army whose troops are involved in the operation.
Four government soldiers were injured and two pickup vehicles destroyed in the clash, he told Xinhua through telephone, but giving no information on the casualties on the enemy side.
According to the official, US gunship helicopters and jet fighters heavily bombed positions of the Taliban fighters in the mountainous areas during the clash. Janan said that the recently increasing Taliban resistance operations in the area maybe related to a possible existence of Taliban top leader Mullah Omar in the areas, without giving evidence for his claim.
Over 500 Taliban fighters were actively involved in attacks against government targets in recent days in some areas of Zabul province, which borders Pakistan.
Some members of al-Qaeda network were probably among these Taliban fighters, according to the official. "We have monitored radio conversations in Arabic and Urdu languages these days in the area where we are carrying out the operation," Janan said.
**PHOTO CAPTION***
An unidentified tribal man checking a weapon at his workshop in Darra Adam Khel, some 30 kms south of the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar. (AFP/file/Tariq Mahmood)