Afghan unrest kills 11: officials
10 hours ago

KABUL (AFP) — Insurgent bomb attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday killed a provincial deputy police chief and two civilians as Taliban militants stormed a checkpoint overnight and killed eight policemen, officials said.

A roadside bomb planted by "enemies" killed the police officer for northeastern Kunar province as he was travelling in eastern Laghman province, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Another man was killed with him, it said, without identifying the person.

Laghman provincial spokesman Sayed Ahmad Safi said the other casualty was a civilian. Three other people, including the officer's son, were wounded, Safi told AFP.

In another explosion on Saturday, an Afghan civilian who was supplying containers to international troops in the eastern town of Khost was killed by a bomb put into his car, a provincial official said.

An Afghan translator for US forces was killed in a similar attack in the same town on Friday.

The interior ministry also blamed this attack on "the enemies", a reference to insurgents.

Taliban militants meanwhile stormed a police checkpoint in southern Helmand province overnight and killed eight policemen, the provincial government said.

The ambush took place just north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. "Eight police were killed," Helmand government spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP.

Helmand is perhaps Afghanistan's most intense battlefield in an insurgency that has brought roughly 90,000 international troops to the country, with more on the way.

Police are on the frontline of the battle, frequently bearing the brunt of the attacks because they are not as well equipped or as well trained as the Afghan army and the international security forces.

The Taliban control a handful of districts in Helmand, where British and US troops have recently stepped up operations against the insurgents.

Afghan forces have also been trying to clear out insurgent hotspots ahead of August 20 presidential elections, a test of the fragile country's attempts to transition to democracy.

President Hamid Karzai called Saturday on the Taliban and other insurgent groups to vote in the elections and not attack the polls.

Copyright © 2009 AFP