Insurgents mount raid in southeastern Afghan town

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters staged a commando-style raid on a town in southeastern Afghanistan on Monday, and government forces said they had the militants surrounded.

A Reuters reporter in the town heard an explosion and shooting near the headquarters of the Khost provincial department for tribal affairs.

Smoke could be seen rising over the area. Afghan forces had cordoned off the road leading to the site of the blast and a helicopter was seen landing nearby.

"We have two fighters surrounded near the tribal affairs department," said General Zahiruddin Wardak, a commander of Afghan army troops in Khost.

Salahuddin Ayoubi, a Taliban commander in the area, said by telephone that militants, including two suicide bombers, had seized a government building in a commando-style raid.

Khost is near the Pakistani border and is the heartland of a Taliban-allied faction led by militant commander Jalaluddin Haqqani. It has frequently been the scene of commando-style raids by gunmen and bombers.

The tactic -- in which bombers and gunmen seize buildings -- has increased over the past year in towns in the south and east, as well as several times in the capital, Kabul.

(Reporting by Ilyas Wahdat; writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Peter Graff and Paul Tait)

(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)