At least three police officers were killed in ongoing fighting.

The attack came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber infiltrated the capital's main military hospital and killed at least six Afghan medical students.

In Sunday's incident, three or four men armed with assault rifles and wearing explosives strapped to their bodies shot their way into a compound that houses the traffic department on the edge of Khost city shortly after dawn, said Gen. Raz Mohammad Oryakhail, the army commander for Khost province.

They killed a police guard as they entered and then took over the second floor of the building, from which they shot down at police and soldiers outside, he said.