Suicide bombs, roadside blast kill 15 Afghan civilians

Suicide bombs, roadside blast kill 15 Afghan civilians

• Representational Image File Photo

Suicide car bombers struck foreign vehicles in eastern Afghanistan and Kabul on Friday, killing three Afghans and wounding others, and a roadside blast killed a dozen people on their way to a wedding, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks on foreign convoys in Kabul and Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border. The background to the wedding party attack in Ghazni province, south of Kabul, was not immediately clear.

Afghanistan’s war with Taliban insurgents is grinding on after international troops ended their combat role last year, and civilians continue to make up the bulk of casualties. The first attack of the day struck near Jalalabad, hitting a convoy of foreign troops who are part of a residual training mission for Afghan forces.

“The suicide bomber struck just outside Jalalabad airport as the foreign troops were passing,” said Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, chief of police for Nangarhar province. Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar, which saw a series of militants attacks last year.

The international troops in the convoy suffered minor injuries, a spokesman for the force said. In Kabul, later on Friday, another suicide bomber drove into a vehicle used by foreigners in the city’s east, injuring at least three Afghans in the vicinity of the blast, police said.

“It happened when two vehicles were passing through the area,” Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said. It was unclear whether the vehicle was owned by the military or another foreign entity.

via NorthEast Calling http://ift.tt/1IzRu2G