KHOST : Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed an apartment block in an Afghan provincial capital on Monday, sparking a gun battle with police that left four rebels dead.

The militants seized the building near police headquarters in Gardez, capital of eastern Paktia province, at about 10:00 am (0530 GMT) and began firing at security forces as they surrounded the building, an official said.

Eastern Afghanistan is one of the worst flashpoints of violence in the Taliban-led insurgency plaguing the country and now at the worst levels since US-led troops invaded in late 2001 to oust the Taliban regime in Kabul.

“So far we have killed four of them,” provincial police chief, General Azizuddin Wardak told AFP.

“There is still some resistance, I think one or two people are still alive and are resisting,” he said.

Two of the dead militants were wearing explosives-packed suicide vests which detonated when they were shot, he said.

One militant was wounded “but is still firing at us,” the police chief said.

Security forces were surrounding the residential apartment block about 200 metres (yards) from a quick reaction police unit, he said.

“We’ll get them very soon,” Wardak said.

Coordinated gun and suicide attacks, usually targeting Afghan government officials and security installations, have become increasingly frequent.

The interior ministry earlier said two militants were killed during Monday’s incident.

A spokesman for the ministry said one was shot while trying to run at the security forces, but his explosives-packed vest detonated.

“The explosives he had on his body exploded after our security forces opened fired at him,” the ministry’s Zemarai Bashary said, adding that a second militant was also shot dead later.

Paktia lies on the border with Pakistan, where the Taliban have havens and where the United States is putting increasing pressure on Islamabad to crack down on militants who use Pakistani territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

A local government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the gun battles in Gardez.

“There is ongoing fighting between security forces and the terrorists,” the official said, speaking from Gardez by telephone.

A purported Taliban spokesman, speaking from an unknown location, said it was a Taliban operation.

The Taliban are waging an insurgency against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and the 113,000 US and Nato troops in the country.

US President Barack Obama and NATO allies have pledged an extra 37,000 troops, which should take the overall foreign deployment to 150,000.