KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — A suicide attacker in police uniform killed two policemen and a civilian when he blew himself up at the entrance of a government compound in Afghanistan Monday, an official said.
The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body after he was stopped by police while trying to enter the Dand district headquarters in the southern province of Kandahar, provincial spokesman Zalmai Ayobi told AFP.
"Two policemen and a civilian were killed and two other policemen in the premises were wounded," Ayobi said.
Although the explosion did not cause any casualties to the district authorities inside the compound, it did damage the main entrance of the building, he added.
Dand district is adjacent to the provincial capital, Kandahar.
Ayobi blamed the attack on Taliban insurgents but the extremist group, which claims responsibility for almost all attacks against authorities, did not immediately claim responsibility.
Kandahar province was the birthplace of the fundamentalist Taliban in the early 1990s. By 1996 the hardliners were in power in Kabul, but were ejected in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
Monday's suicide attack follows two on Sunday. One in the northern province of Baghlan killed two Afghan civilians and wounded two German troops serving in a NATO-led military force supporting the Afghan government.
The other bombing was on the outskirts of the western city of Herat and left two US soldiers wounded, the military said.
Insurgent attacks are said to be at their highest this year, dashing Afghanistan's hopes for stability and reconstruction after nearly three decades of war.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
