Double suicide attack kills seven in Afghanistan
A double suicide bomb attack killed seven people and wounded 20 in southern Afghanistan today, an official said.
The majority of casualties were police and army units responding to the initial attack.
The first suicide bomber was on a motorbike detonated his explosives near a taxi stand and police checkpoint in the town of Gereshk in Helmand province, the world’s largest poppy-growing region and the country’s most violent province, said Dawood Ahmadi, the governor’s spokesman.
Helmand deputy provincial police chief Kamaluddin Khan said when police and army units responded to the scene, a second suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives, causing a majority of the casualties.
The blasts killed seven people – four security forces and three civilians – and wounded 20 people, Mr Ahmadi said.
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusef Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Taliban militants have increased their attacks the last three years as the country’s insurgency has turned increasingly bloody.
US President Barack Obama is sending 21,000 additional US troops to the country to bolster the record 38,000 American forces already in the country.
In other violence today, a roadside bomb in eastern Nangarhar province killed eight construction workers travelling on a rural road on their way to build a checkpoint for the country’s border police, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesman for Nangarhar’s governor.
Three Afghan civilians – a truck driver and two assistants – died in a roadside bomb blast in Zabul province while transporting goods to an American base, said Ghulam Jalani Khan, the deputy provincial police chief.
Two police died in a separate blast on Saturday, he said.
