KANDAHAR, Jan 6: Two suicide bombers struck a meeting of community leaders in a southern Afghan town on Sunday, killing at least five people and wounding 15, officials said.

One gunman on foot opened fire on guards at the entrance of the council building in Spin Boldak, forced his way inside and detonated himself, while a second attacker rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the outside walls.

The Kandahar provincial government said the dead were a child, a health vaccinator, a member of the Shura (council), a shopkeeper and a person there to register himself for an identity card.

“All the wounded were civilians who had come to the meeting to discuss their problems with Shura members,” it said in a statement, adding that three people were being treated for serious injuries in Kandahar city hospital.

The building partially collapsed due the impact of the blasts, with some of the injured pulled from the rubble during a search operation to check for buried bodies.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed the militants were responsible, saying eight people, mostly policemen, were killed, though provincial officials reported no security forces had died or been injured.

Witnesses said two explosions were heard followed by small arms fire in Spin Boldak, a volatile town 100km south of Kandahar city.

“Every Sunday the local Shura meets at the administrative building, that is where the attack happened,” said Mohammad Ali, the border police chief.

About 40 residents were attending the meeting to lodge complaints with tribal elders or to petition them for assistance.

Before Sunday, the last major suicide blast in Afghanistan occurred on Dec 26 at a US military base near the eastern city of Khost, killing at least three Afghans and wounding seven others.

It came two days after an Afghan policewoman shot dead a Nato adviser in Kabul police headquarters, the latest ‘insider’ attack by a member of Afghanistan’s security forces on their foreign allies.

Nato is handing over security duties to Afghan forces as it prepares to withdraw the bulk of its 100,000 troops by 2014.—AFP