5 G4S employees among 10 killed

British security firm G4S said yesterday that five of its employees were among at least 10 people killed in a Taliban-claimed attack on one of its compounds in Kabul.

A massive crater marked the spot where the militants detonated a vehicle bomb outside the compound late Wednesday before trying to fight their way inside in the latest violence to rock the Afghan capital.

G4S, which provides security for British diplomats, said one Briton and four Afghans were killed in the attack.

Earlier, Afghan authorities had said at least 10 people had been killed in the attack, but it was not immediately clear if that toll included the G4S employees.

"It is with great sadness that we can confirm that five of our employees were killed and 32 were injured, five of them seriously," managing director Charlie Burbridge said in a statement.

"We are committed to our security role in support of the people of Afghanistan, and we are determined that incidents such as this will not prevent the vital work that the international community conducts from continuing," he said.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP earlier that 10 people were killed in the attack -- all of them Afghan nationals.

But police spokesman Abdul Basir Mujahid said authorities were still working to identify the nationalities of the victims.

"Five attackers were involved, one detonated his vehicle at the gate, and four others were on foot and they entered the building," Danish told AFP.