Kunduz:
Taliban militants on Sunday stormed an army recruiting centre in the northern province of Kunduz leading to a fierce firefight lasting at least five hours, officials said.
Four militants stormed an army recruitment centre at daybreak, with two managing to detonate their suicide vests, the Afghan Defence Ministry said in a statement.
The initial assault killed three Afghan soldiers and two police officers, the ministry said.
At least one of the attackers survived and fierce fighting broke out inside the compound and the gunbattle continued for several hours, provincial deputy governor Hamdullah Danishi said.
Danishi said initial reports indicated the attackers were dressed in army uniforms.
Those killed all died just outside the centre, he said, adding that 20 recent recruits were also wounded in the attack.
A spokesman for Kunduz governor, Mahbobullah Sayedi, said "some suicide attackers stormed the National Army recruiting centre in Kocha-i-Maharif street in the second district of Kunduz. The situation is under the control of security forces now."
The Kunduz assault came a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited her country's troops stationed in the province - a trip referred to by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in his claim of responsibility for the two attacks.
In a separate attack, militants ambushed a bus carrying army officers in the capital - the first major attack in Kabul in months.
At least 10 Afghan security forces were killed in the two attacks.
Both operations were claimed by the Taliban.
Meanwhile NATO said an international service member died in a bomb attack in the south Sunday, bringing the total number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan in 2010 to 690, according to an Associated Press count.
Previously the worst year of war was 2009, which saw 502 foreign troops killed.