Six Decapitated in Afghan Bank Heist

Six Afghan private security guards were beheaded during a bank robbery in northern Afghanistan, police said today. An unknown number of robbers raided a Kabul Bank in Balkh province, making off with $269,000 in US and Afghan currency. It appeared the guards had been poisoned beforehand, with someone slipping the poison into their food last night, a police spokesman said. Kabul Bank officials declined to comment.

Meanwhile, insurgents wearing suicide vests tried to storm Kandahar Air Field, NATO's largest base in the south, but did not breach its defenses, officials said. The assault started shortly before midday today, with two rockets fired into the base. Then a handful of would-be suicide bombers assaulted the outer gates, but they died before getting far. "They either detonated themselves or were killed," a NATO spokesman said. No NATO personnel were harmed. (More Afghanistan stories.)