KABUL — More than 50 senior Taliban commanders were killed in an artillery strike on a meeting in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand, a US military spokesman said on Wednesday, as fighting continued across the country.

Details of last week’s operation emerged as fighting continued in other parts of Afghanistan, where the Taliban, aiming to restore their version of hardline Islamic law, launched their annual spring offensive last month.

Gunmen in Kabul, the capital, attacked the heavily fortified interior ministry, battling security forces for more than two hours before the assault was suppressed.

There were also serious incidents in Takhar province in the north, in Loghar, east of the capital, and Kandahar in the south, keeping up a pattern of attacks across the country.

The US military said the May 24 meeting in Helmand’s district of Musa Qala involved commanders from a number of Afghan provinces, including neighboring Farah, where Taliban fighters this month briefly threatened to overrun the provincial capital.

“We think the meeting was to plan next steps,” said Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan. While the strike by an artillery rocket system would disrupt Taliban operations, it would not necessarily mean any interruption to the fighting, he said.

However, the attack in one of the heartlands of the Taliban insurgency was a significant blow to the insurgents, he said.

“It’s certainly a notable strike,” he said, adding that several other senior and lower level commanders had been killed during operations over a 10-day period this month.

The Taliban dismissed the report as “propaganda” and said the attack had hit two civilian houses in Musa Qala, killing five civilians and wounding three.

“This was a civilian residential area, which had no connection with the Taliban,” spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said in a statement.

Meanwhile, militants launched a gun and bomb attack on the interior ministry in Kabul on Wednesday, killing one policeman and wounding at least five people, days after the Taliban vowed to target the Afghan capital.

Special forces rushed to the scene after the attackers detonated what police said was a car bomb at the first checkpoint leading to the ministry, then tried to fight their way inside.

“The fighting is over, the attackers have all been killed by security forces between the first and second security perimeter,” Kabul police chief Daud Amin said.

A security source said that a clearing operation was ongoing.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, and officials gave differing figures for the number of militants involved, with police saying three to five while interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said there were at least 10.

Danish also said one police officer had been killed and five people wounded.

“The situation is under control now,” he said, adding that there could be more explosions as police detonate suicide vests carried by the attackers.

“I was in my office when I heard a blast followed by gunfire. We were told to stay inside our offices as the compound was attacked,” one ministry employee said earlier.

A security source said there had been multiple blasts, though he could not confirm how many.

Police also said they had found a car stuffed with explosives and guns at Kabul's international airport, which is near to the interior ministry, on Wednesday. — Agencies