By DPA,
Kabul : A suicide attack in a market in southern Afghanistan Monday killed eight civilians and two policemen and wounded 27 people, while a district governor was killed by gunmen in the same region, officials said.
A suicide bomber attacked a police ranger vehicle in the main market of Musa Qala district in the southern province of Helmand, said provincial police chief Assadullah Shirzad.
“Eight civilians and two policemen were killed and 25 civilians and two other policemen were wounded in today’s attack,” Shirzad said.
Taliban spokesman for the southern region, Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi, said one of their fighters carried out the attack. He said the target of the bombing was a local police commander.
Ahmadi, speaking from an undisclosed location by phone, said three policemen, including their commander, were killed. Taliban militants have carried out more than 100 suicide attacks so far this year.
Meanwhile, two Taliban fighters on a motorbike shot dead a district governor in southern Afghanistan – the latest in a series of assassinations of senior provincial officials.
Abdul Rahim Desiwal, governor of Andar district in southern Ghazni province, was killed in front of his house in the provincial capital, also called Ghazni, as he was on his way to his office, his spokesman Ismail Jahangir said.
The spokesman said one of Desiwal’s bodyguards was seriously wounded and taken to hospital. Provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman said he believed the attackers were still in the area.
Another Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, also speaking from an undisclosed location, said his organisation’s fighters carried out the attack.
Andar is one of the troubled districts in Ghazni province, where the Taliban are most active. Desiwal was targeted by militants several times in the past and was twice wounded.
Taliban fighters using motorbikes have killed several provincial officials in the southern and eastern provinces in recent months.