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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

District Chief Killed in Roadside Bomb in Western Afghanistan

Security forces in Afghanistan. (Reuters file photo)

A district chief was killed on Saturday in a roadside bomb in the western Afghanistan province of Ghor, an official said.

Abdul Hai Khateby, provincial governor's spokesman, stated that Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim was targeted in Charsada district and was on duty at the time.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Khateby blamed it on Taliban insurgents.

Elsewhere, in the eastern Ghazni province, Taliban fighters ambushed a police convoy, killing four police and wounding six others, said Arif Noori, spokesman for the governor.

Noori added that a police special forces commander was among the four killed in the attack early Saturday morning.

He said six insurgents were also killed and seven others wounded in the gun battle in Waghez district.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.

Also in Ghazni, three children were killed and seven others wounded on Friday by two roadside mine blasts in a residential area.

Noori said that the explosives were possibly meant for later use against security forces.

On Thursday night, Taliban attacks on security posts in Ghazni city killed two national police and wounded four others.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier on Friday, the Taliban again rejected an Afghan offer for peace talks with the government in Kabul.

The insurgents "are not interested in talks while foreign soldiers are still on Afghan soil,” said a statement by the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Mujahid referred to last month's statement by the Afghan High Peace Council, a government body tasked with negotiating an end to the nearly 17-year war with the insurgents, which had called on the Taliban to join the peace process.

Mujahid also repeated long-standing Taliban claims that Afghan government officials are "puppets."

Taliban leaders have at times expressed interest in holding peace talks but they have refused to meet with the US-backed government, saying they will only negotiate with the United States directly about the withdrawal of all foreign forces.

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