Five suicide bombers attacked a local government office in eastern Afghanistan Thursday, starting a gunbattle that left three Afghan police dead and two others wounded, officials said. Three suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to a compound in Zumat district, a hotbed of the insurgency along the Pakistan border, said Paktia provincial spokesman Ruhollah Samoon. The area is controlled by the Haqqani militant network, which has ties to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Samoon said two other attackers, who also were wearing vests packed with explosives, were killed by police when they tried to storm the compound. Provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Safi said Afghan elders from the area were meeting there with local government officials when the attackers struck.