13 killed in separate Afghanistan bomb attacks

At least thirteen people have been killed and tens of others injured when a string of bomb explosions ripped through the northern and southern parts of war-wracked Afghanistan.

A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one civilian lost his life and 16 others sustained injuries when a bomb exploded near a hospital in Baghlan’s provincial capital city of Puli Khumri, located 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of the capital, Kabul, on Tuesday.

The official added that the blast targeted a police vehicle, though no police officer was wounded.

Separately, eight people were killed and 23 others wounded when a car bomb blast struck a police checkpoint in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand.

Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the blast took place as a bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near the checkpoint on the outskirts of the provincial capital city of Lashkar Gah, located about 555 kilometers (344 miles) south of the capital, Kabul, on Tuesday.

He added that the dead included six civilians and two police officers.

In another development of Tuesday, a roadside bombing killed four people and wounded five elsewhere in Afghanistan.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the acts of terror. However, such incidents are usually blamed on Taliban militants.

Roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices are by far the most lethal weapons Taliban militants use against Afghan forces, foreign troops, and civilians.

Latest official data show as many as 20 bomb attacks were carried out in Afghanistan in February. Meanwhile some 70 people, nearly half of them civilians, lost their lives and more than 80 others sustained injuries in a spate of terrorist attacks during the same period.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

Although the US-led invasion removed the Taliban from power, insecurity remains rampant in the country.

The US-led combat mission in Afghanistan ended on December 31, 2014. However, at least 13,000 foreign forces, mainly from the United States, will remain in Afghanistan in what is said to be a support mission.