The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Kabul

Six security guards were killed and three injured when gunmen attacked their posts near a mine in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, a local official said Saturday.

The guards were from a private Afghan security company and were hired by the government to secure a chromate mine in the province's Spera district, provincial spokesman Khaibar Pashtun said.

"Six guards were killed and three others were injured" late on Friday, Pashtun said. "We believe the killers were chromate smugglers."

Afghanistan has rich deposits of minerals including precious stones, which in most areas are explored illegally.

Pashtun said that smugglers used to explore chromate from the district before a government ban in recent years.