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Taliban fighters pictured with weapons in an undisclosed location in Nangarhar province. /Reuters
A Taliban suicide bomber detonated an explosive-packed military vehicle as it approached the provincial governor's residence and police headquarters in the Afghan province of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing at least three people, authorities said. Three other police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Ghazni province.
The Taliban, which was expected to restrain from intensifying violence, claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Bloodshed is escalating anew in Afghanistan even as the United States tries to broker a peace deal between the Taliban and Afghan government after almost two decades of war.
"At around 4 a.m., a suicide bomber driving a large (Afghan security force) truck came under fire from security forces before reaching his goal, but detonated explosives near police headquarters and the governor's residential complex,' the spokesman of Kandahar's governor said.
Three members of the security forces were killed and 14 people wounded, including civilians, in the attack in the Sha Wali Kot district of Kandahar, he said, and the police headquarters and governor's compound suffered severe damage.
In the roadside bombing in Ghazni, the provincial governor's spokesman said a police commander who was inspecting checkpoints early in the morning died along with his two bodyguards in the attack.
Separately, the Defense Ministry said Afghan soldiers repelled Taliban attacks on Tuesday on army checkpoints in the district of Khogyani in eastern Nangarhar province. The statement said at least 20 Taliban insurgents were killed, including their group leader, while a police commander and three other people were killed and 11 were wounded.
The Taliban did not claim responsibility for the Nangarhar attack or issue any statements about it. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially in Nangarhar.
Also on Tuesday, Kabul saw an explosion that injured two civilians, butsecurity forces said they had thwarted large attacks in and around the capital.
Diplomats say the resurgence of attacks is heightening mistrust just as the Afghan government and Taliban are set to enter peace negotiations and as the United States withdraws forces under a deal with the Taliban struck in February.
Disagreement over a release of prisoners – with Kabul refusing to free 600 of the 5,000 Taliban it holds – is proving to be one of the last major hurdles to the start of full peace negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha.
(With input from Reuters, AP)
