News / Afghanistan

Two die in blast near police checkpoint in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar

Wednesday, 22 June 2016 2:20 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 22 June 2016 2:20 PM ]

An Afghan relative mourns alongside the body of a victim killed when a motorcycle bomb exploded in a crowded market in the Kishim district of Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, June 20, 2016. (AFP)

Two people have been killed in a bomb explosion that struck near a police checkpoint in Afghanistan’s conflict-stricken eastern province of Nangarhar.

Deputy provincial police chief, Abass Sadat, said the blast was carried out in the provincial capital city of Jalalabad, located about 118 kilometers (73 miles) east of the capital, Kabul, on Wednesday. A traffic policeman and a civilian were killed.

He added that two civilians were also wounded in the attack, and that the bomb was likely detonated by remote control.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but it bears the hallmark of those carried out by members of the Taliban militant group.

Insider attack kills 4 Afghan police

Separately, at least four police officers were killed when a rogue colleague opened fire and shot them dead in Afghanistan's northwestern province of Badghis.

The incident took place in the Jawand district of the province on Tuesday evening, when the armed man clad in Afghan police uniform turned his rifle on the officers.

A member of the provincial council, speaking on condition of anonymity, said another soldier was wounded in the attack and the assailant was killed after other soldiers responded to his gunfire.

Afghan security force personnel stand alert at the entrance to a provincial court in Ghazni on June 1, 2016, after a group of Taliban militants targeted the building. (AFP)

Insider attacks are common among Afghanistan's security forces, and are often carried out by Taliban infiltrators.

On May 21, three gunmen disguised in Afghan police uniforms shot and killed at least six police officers in the central province of Uruzgan.

On March 24, seven Afghan policemen were shot dead by three rogue colleagues in the Arghandab district of the southern province of Kandahar.

Afghanistan faces a security challenge years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but many areas in the country are still beset with insecurity.

There are currently some 10,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan despite the end of the US-led combat mission on December 31, 2014. The forces, mainly from the US, are there for what Washington calls a support mission. NATO says the forces focus mainly on counter-terrorism operations and training Afghan soldiers and policemen.

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