— By Domani Spero

BBC’s David Loyn in Kabul reports that Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have attacked the US consulate in the western city of Herat early Friday.  “An Afghan army spokesman told the BBC that the initial explosion had damaged outer defences of the US consulate, allowing the attackers to breach the perimeter and shoot at the consulate buildings. The bomb had been placed in a car.” Two Afghan police and one locally hired guard (LGF) were reportedly killed.

According to Al Jazeera at least seven people have died and 17 others injured in the attack. The report citing Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi (the governor of Herat province)  via the AP news agency says that the attack began at about 6am local time (2am GMT) on Friday with a powerful car bomb explosion about 60m from the consulate compound.

A short while ago, the US Embassy tweeted about the attack.

Time’s Zeke Miller via @ZekeJMiller has the full State Department statement:

See a couple of older posts on our Afghanistan consulates as well as The Skeptical Bureaucrat’s post:

US Consulate Herat Moves Forward 

US Consulate Mazar-e-Sharif: $80 Million and Wishful Thinking Down the Drain, and Not a Brake Too Soon

The Skeptical Bureaucrat: A Tale Of Two Consulates (Or, “Well, At Least Herat Wasn’t Screwed Up”)

The Skeptical Bureaucrat: Mazar-e-Sharif – The Mud, The Manure, And The Money

Also a new post by The Skeptical Bureaucrat –  U.S. Consulate Herat: Attack Defeated But Local Guards Killed (added on 9/13/13)

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Related articles

• Bombers attack U.S. Consulate in Herat, Afghanistan (sacbee.com)
• Afghanistan: Taliban attack US consulate in Herat with suicide bomb, gunfire (theguardian.com)
• US consulate in Afghanistan rocked by car blast, gunfire – RT News (rt.com)
• Three dead as Taliban launches attack on US consulate in Herat, Afghanistan (abc.net.au)