Suicide bombers killed at least four people when they attacked two government offices in the southeastern Afghan town of Khost today.
One bomber targeted the department for counter-narcotics, while the second detonated explosives inside the main intelligence headquarters a few hundred metres away, a police spokesman said.
"The bomber had managed to get inside the intelligence department by wearing the agency's uniform," he said.
Two intelligence officers and two police officers were killed and at least nine others wounded in the attack among officials in the intelligence department.
It was not clear whether foreign troops were hit in either of the attacks.
Afghan and foreign troops had cordoned off the area and at least one helicopter belonging to foreign troops was hovering overhead, residents said.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the strikes, saying that three members of the Islamists group were involved and their target was the head of intelligence in Khost and his deputy, a Taliban spokesman said via a website.
Separately today, authorities began a search of two prison cells where Taliban prisoners are held in the key Pul-i-Charkhi jail on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, the deputy justice minister said.
The aim of the search was to disarm prisoners possibly holding guns or knives, Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai said. The prison has been the scene of a series of bloody riots in recent years. Today's search was the second this year.