Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi took responsibility for the attack in a phone call with The Associated Press. Around the same time, a suicide bomber detonated his truck full of explosives near government offices in eastern Paktika province after security personnel opened fire at him. At least seven Afghan forces were wounded in the explosion, another Afghan official said. Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan are no longer concentrated in the country's south and east, but also occur with troubling frequency in the north and west, which have been the more peaceful areas in years past. Friday's assaults came on the heels of two days of celebrations as Afghans of all backgrounds welcomed their nation's first international soccer championship win. Afghan and U.S. officials offered slightly different accounts of what happened in Herat, differences which could not immediately be reconciled as is common in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement that the assault began around 5:30 a.m,, when "a truck attackers drove to the front gate, and attackers possibly firing rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles, starting firing at Afghan forces and security guards on the exterior of the gates. The entire truck exploded, extensively damaging the front gate. Footage broadcast on Afghanistan's Tolo television network showed Afghan police dragging away a badly bloodied man from the scene, but it was unclear if he was dead or who he was. Rubble and twisted pieces of metal lay strewn in a seemingly wide area near the consulate, the footage showed.