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 latest blast was triggered by explosives attached to a parked bicycle in
the western part of Kandahar city, the capital of the province of 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.
The spokesman said 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, dpa reported.