By Zhang Yunlong, Shuai Rong, Xinhua
Kabul : Taliban militants in a suicide car blast killed one person and injured four others, all policemen, inKhost province of eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the interior ministry said.
The attacker was trying to ram his explosive-laden vehicle to the district chief’s building in Tani district of Khost when he detonated the bomb, the ministry said in a statement.
“The explosion occurred at around 11:45 a.m. local time killed the bomber himself and destroyed his vehicle also,” a local police spokesman Wazir Badshah told Xinhua.
Zabihullah Mujahed, a purported spokesman for the Taliban, told media that his outfit conducted the attack, adding “some 10 policemen were killed”, in an alleged way of exaggerating the damage.
This is the second bombing attack in two days in Khost, where a suicide car blast targeted another district center building killed four including two NATO soldiers and two Afghan workers on Monday.
Major Richelle Dowdell, an official with NATO press office here told Xinhua that the explosion near the building killed two soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and injured 15 other soldiers.
Two Afghan workers were also killed and one policeman “slightly” injured on Monday in the attack at the government office, jointly guarded by Afghan and ISAF troops, Mohammad Ayub, Khost provincial police chief told Xinhua.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi while claiming responsibility said, “five tons of explosives were used in the blast” and it “inflicted huge casualties on foreign and Afghan troops.”
The Taliban, fighting against Afghan government and foreign troops since fall from power in late 2001, continued to launch such guerrilla style attacks.
Militancy-related violence left more than 6,000 people dead in 2007 and the anti-government militants have vowed to intensity their attacks this year.
Three consecutive bombings rocked Kandahar, a known birthplace of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, on Feb. 17-19, killing over 150 people and injuring many others, mostly civilians.
Local observers have predicted that an upsurge of militants-related violence in the coming warm spring when the road traffic once blocked due to cold weather will resume in the country’s remote regions and thus will facilitate militants’ movement.