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8 die in Afghan police HQ suicide blasts
Kandahar—Two suicide bombers blew themselves up
inside the police headquarters in Afghanistan’s southern city of
Kandahar Sunday, killing at least eight people, a senior local
official told AFP.
“There were two suicide bombers who blew themselves up inside the
police headquarters one after another,” said Ahmad Wali Karzai, head
of Kandahar’s provincial council and President Hamid Karzai’s
brother.
“So far, according to my information, eight people have been
martyred and 23 others have been wounded,” he said. APP/AFP A
suicide bomber also blew up himself up near a convoy of
international troops in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat on
Sunday but appeared to have caused no casualties, police said.
The bomber, who was on foot, detonated his explosives as a convoy of
NATO-led troops passed, a police officer at the scene told AFP on
condition of anonymity.
“Initial reports indicate that there were no casualties,” he said.
An AFP reporter at the scene said the troops involved in the attack
were Italian but this was not officially confirmed.
The media office at the headquarters of the NATO-led International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said it did not have
reports about an attack in Herat.
The blast came one day after a suicide attack in the southwestern
town of Zaranj that killed six Afghans, including two state
attorneys.
Afghan and international troops raided a militant compound in
eastern Afghanistan and killed more than 10 suspected rebels, the
US-led coalition said Sunday.
Three more suspects were arrested during the operation late Saturday
on the base of the Taliban’s radical Haqqani faction in Khost
province, the coalition said in a statement.
The Al-Qaeda-linked faction is said to be responsible for a series
of suicide bombings and other attacks as part of an extremist
insurgency launched after the militants were removed from government
in late 2001.
“Coalition forces killed more than 10 armed militants and detained
three additional militants during an operation Saturday in Khost
province,” the statement said.
“The operation targeted a Haqqani militant wanted for conducting and
coordinating direct and suicide attacks in Sabari district. This
militant was killed during the operation.”
The provincial governor, Arsala Jamal, confirmed the operation but
gave a different death toll.
“Nine Taliban, including their top commander, were killed and three
others were arrested,” Jamal said.
Militants had fled as the troops approached the targeted compound,
the coalition said. The troops chased them and called in attack
helicopters and air strikes.—AFP
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