A group of unidentified armed men attacked a foreign construction company in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan on Friday night and burned its building machines, an Afghan official said Saturday.

In the meantime, Afghan President Hamid Karzai paid a visit to Kandahar on Saturday morning to inaugurate the governor house there, where he was narrowly escaped an attempt on his life last year.

"The terrorists attacked a construction agency last night in Kandahar and set its machinery on fire," spokesman of Interior Ministry Lutfullah Mashal told Xinhua.

Expressing his ignorance about the exact casualty or the name of the company, the official said, "The incident is being investigated."

Asked whether Taliban's loyalists were behind the attack, he replied, "Terrorists are behind the heinous crime."

Afghan sources said the company was engaged in road construction and the attackers destroyed 10 pieces of its machinery including seven bulldozers.

Early in the year a helicopter belonging to US construction firm Luis Burger was shot down by unknown attackers in Kandahar, the former stronghold of Taliban where the group's remnants have been intensifying their insurgency for the last several months.

Over 600 people including civilians, Afghan and US-led foreign troops have been killed in Taliban-related activities, mostly in the south, southeast and east Afghanistan since last summer.  

Source: Xinhua