KABUL, Dhu-AlQa'dah 7, 1434, Sep 13, 2013, SPA -- Taliban militants unleashed car bombs at the U.S. Consulate in western Afghanistan on Friday morning, triggering a firefight with security forces in an attack that killed at least two Afghans and wounded 17. The U.S. said its personnel from the mission were safe and that most of them were temporarily relocated to Kabul, while American forces secured the site. The attack in the city of Herat - along with a suicide truck bombing in the country's east that wounded seven Afghans on Friday - raises concerns of spreading insecurity in Afghanistan as U.S.-led troops reduce their presence ahead of a full withdrawal next year. It came two days after the 12 anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and was a harsh reality check for Afghans who had spent the previous day and a half celebrating their nation's first international soccer championship, AP reported. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi took responsibility for the Herat attack in a phone call with The Associated Press. Afghan and U.S. officials, meanwhile, offered slightly different accounts of what happened - differences which could not immediately be reconciled. According to Gen. Rahmatullah Safi, Herat province's chief of police, the attack began around 6 a.m. when militants in an SUV and a van set off their explosives-laden vehicles while others on foot fired on Afghan security forces guarding the compound in the city, which lies some 650 kilometers (400 miles) from Kabul. An Afghan police officer and an Afghan security guard were killed, though it was not clear whether they died in the explosions of the two vehicles or in the gunfire, Safi said. At least seven attackers were killed, including the two drivers of the explosives-laden vehicles, he said. -- SPA 19:04 LOCAL TIME 16:04 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/1145772