A gun and suicide attack on an Afghan governor's compound killed 22 people on Sunday in the latest Taliban assault spotlighting the militants' power just outside the capital Kabul.
Abdul Basir Salangi, the governor of Parwan province, told a local television channel during the siege that six suicide bombers had stormed the main provincial administration.
"I'm inside," Salangi told Tolo News, referring to the compound that houses his office and other administrators in the provincial capital of Charikar about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kabul.
The governor is a prominent anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban resistance commander who fought tough battles with the Taliban when they were in power from 1996 until the 2001 US-led invasion evicted them from government.
The interior ministry said that 16 provincial officials and six police officers were killed in the attack, and another 34 -- including 10 policemen -- were wounded.
Salangi later told reporters that one of the would-be bombers was detained after being "mistakenly evacuated to hospital for his injuries".
Abdul Khalil Farhangi, a doctor at the local Charikar hospital, said 16 dead and nearly 30 other people with injuries had been admitted to his hospital. Some of the injured were flown to Kabul for further treatment, he added.
Interior ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqi said the attack began when insurgents detonated a suicide car bomb at the compound's entrance, killing guards and allowing the other attackers to storm the heavily guarded premises.
The governor and other provincial officials gathered for a security meeting when the attack began at 11:00 am (0630 GMT), police said.
"Five suicide bombers broke into the compound and a gunfight erupted," Parwan provincial police chief Sher Mohammad Maladani told AFP.
The police chief said the attack lasted for more than an hour.
During a series of explosions, parts of one of the buildings in the compound caught fire, witnesses said.
Two of the attackers blew themselves up, while three more were shot by police, the interior ministry said.
At least two US military officials, described as "advisers", were also present but were "absolutely fine," Maladani said.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul said it provided helicopters to evacuate the wounded.
The Taliban militia, leading a 10-year insurgency against the Western-backed government and 140,000 US-led foreign troops, claimed responsibility for the raid.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP that the attack was carried out "by our suicide and devout fighters".
Parwan has long been thought to be one of the safest regions in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime.
The surrounding farming plains are also home to Bagram, the biggest US military base in Afghanistan.
But it was the second time that Salangi's compound has been targeted. Last June, a suicide bomber killed two civilians at the outer gate.
On August 5, the Taliban shot down a US helicopter in Wardak province, killing 38 troops in the worst single American loss of life in the war and underlining their grip on territory an hour's drive southwest of the capital.
In recent years, the rebels have honed the technique of coordinated attacks in which multiple gunmen and suicide bombers fight their way into government buildings and security facilities before setting off their bombs.
Separately, a French soldier was shot dead by an insurgent on Sunday in the northeastern Afghan region of Kapisa, the French presidency said.
The lieutenant's death, which took place during a support mission for the national Afghan forces, brings to 74 the number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
US-led NATO combat troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and hand over control to Afghan security forces.