The Taliban have killed Thursday 36 employees - Afghans and a Pakistani - a construction company in an attack against buildings that lasted several hours, at night, in eastern Afghanistan, announced the company.
The attack was the deadliest since the assault, by a commando Taliban against a bank of Jalalabad (east) where the police came to collect their salaries, which had killed 38 on February 20.
"Thirty-six of our employees have been killed and many were wounded," said the director of road construction company Galaxy Sky Noorullah Bidar AFP.
Guards, engineers and workers among the victims, he said."A Pakistani is among the killed and another was wounded," he added.
The complex was located near a road construction site in the province of Paktia.
According Rohullah Samoon, spokesman for the governor of Paktia, the attack was conducted to 02:00 (21:30 GMT) with a "large group of Taliban."
Fighting between the company guards and the attackers lasted several hours, he said.
The director of Galaxy Sky said he did not know the reasons for the attack. In 2009, a suicide bomber in the same area had killed 16 of its employees working on the same road project, he said."They do this to prevent us from rebuilding Afghanistan," he said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed the attack saying the assailants had killed 40 employees. He did not reveal any losses in the ranks of the attackers nor the reasons for the attack.
According to the spokesman for the governor of Paktia, eight Taliban were killed in the crossfire.
He could not provide further details on the attack immediately.
Paktia province has borders North Waziristan, in Pakistan's tribal areas, regarded as a rear base for Taliban.
Such as neighboring Paktika and Khost, Paktia is one of the bastions of Haqqani network, a key Taliban rebel movements.
