A SUICIDE truck bomber targeted a police district headquarters in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province yesterday, killing three officers, a local official said. Three other police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Ghazni province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks.

In the Kandahar attack, the suicide bomber struck in the district of Shah Wali Kot, according to Bahir Ahmadi, the provincial governor’s spokesman. The explosion also wounded 14 people, both policemen and civilians.

Ahmadi said the guards at the district headquarters realized the truck was suspicious and opened fire before it could reach the building. But the shooting set off the explosives’ load, triggering a huge blast that caused the casualties and damaged several nearby buildings as well as the district headquarters, which also houses the office of the police chief and the district administrative department.

In the roadside bombing in Ghazni, Habibullah, the police chief of Dayak district, was killed along with his two bodyguards. Habibullah, who like many Afghans used only one name, was inspecting checkpoints early in the morning when the attack happened.

(SD-Agencies)