Kabul - Two blasts in Afghanistan killed four civilians
including a child, while at least 15 Taliban militants were killed in
separate operations elsewhere in the country, officials said on
Saturday.
The blast was triggered by explosives attached to a parked bicycle
in the western part of Kandahar city, the provincial capital of the
same name, on Saturday morning as a police vehicle was passing by,
said Mohammad Iqbal, a police official at the scene of the incident.
The explosive that was detonated by a remote-controlled device
killed a child and wounded two police officers and two civilians, he
said.
In a similar incident in south-eastern Paktia province on
Saturday, three civilians were killed when their vehicle was blown up
by a roadside mine, provincial spokesman Ghamai Khan Mohammadi said.
He said that the bomb was newly planted on the road, which is
often used by Afghan and international forces in the province.
Taliban militants, whose government was ousted in a US-led
invasion in late 2001, have stepped up their attacks, mainly by
roadside and suicide attacks, both tactics widely believed to have
been copied from Iraqi insurgents.
In another incident, 15 Taliban militants were killed in Bala
Boluk district of western Farah province in an operation by Afghan
forces backed by US-led coalition air-support, General Abass, army
commander in the western region, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Three other militants, including a Taliban commander, were
arrested by army forces in the operation, dubbed Shamshir Bazaar
(Bazaar of Swords), which started on Friday and was still ongoing,
Abass, who goes by a single name, said.
'A Taliban hideout was bombed and destroyed by coalition aircraft
and (this) killed 15 anti-government elements,' the army general
said, adding that the forces also rescued two kidnapped government
employees from Taliban custody.
Meanwhile, the US military said that its forces had killed
'several extremists' and arrested four in an operation aimed to
disrupt militant activities in the south-eastern province of Khost on
Friday.
'During their search, the joint force identified two armed
militants manoeuvring against their force. They responded with small
arms fire and airstrikes, killing both militants,' the military said
in a statement.
In a separate operation, also on Friday, coalition forces detained
eight other Taliban militants in eastern Nangahar province, the
statement said.
The operation had targeted a Taliban militant known to have
facilitated roadside and rocket attacks against the Afghan and
coalition forces in the region, the military said.
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