A roadside bomb exploded outside a provincial governor’s compound Saturday just as the governor was arriving in his car — the third attack in five weeks against a provincial political leader. One government employee was killed, police said.
The governor of the eastern Laghman province was not injured in the explosion. Police said someone placed a bomb hidden in a plastic bag in an irrigation ditch just across from his compound. It was detonated by remote control as he was arriving, said Khalil Rahmani, deputy provincial police chief.
About a dozen suspects were arrested, Rahmani said.
In early September, a suicide bomber killed the governor of Paktia province, and late last month a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the compound of Helmand’s governor, missing the governor but killing 18 people.
Suicide bombing in Kandahar
In the southern province of Kandahar, meanwhile, a suicide car bomb exploded near an Afghan army convoy, wounding three soldiers, said Dawood Ahmadi, the governor’s spokesman.
Late Friday, Taliban militants attacked a police patrol in Zabul province, setting off a firefight that left two police and three militants dead, said Noor Mohammad Paktin, the provincial police chief.
Also Friday, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed van into a NATO military patrol on a busy commercial street in Kandahar city, firing deadly shrapnel at nearby storeowners and shoppers. One NATO soldier and eight Afghan civilians were killed.
The blast also wounded another NATO soldier and eight civilians. A dozen shops were wrecked.
NATO says its clashes with insurgents have decreased in recent weeks. But militants are increasingly resorting to roadside and suicide attacks to weaken the government and hit Afghan and foreign troops.
