Two bomb blasts killed 11 people in AfghanistanÂ’s eastern city of Khost on Sunday, while five Taliban fighters rebels and a policeman died in a battle elsewhere, officials said. The deadliest explosion was caused by a suicide bomber, wearing police uniform and riding a motorcycle, who detonated his explosives in a busy meat market in Khost, provincial deputy intelligence director Mira Jan said. Ten people were killed, all of them civilians, provincial public health director Gul Mohammad Mohammadi said. Four died at the scene and six died in hospital, he said adding that more than 40 were wounded, four of whom were in coma. Police said however only five people were killed in the blast.
Security forces immediately sealed off the area, said a reporter behind the cordon. Ambulances and police vehicles carried away bodies. Officials had been on the lookout for an attacker since Saturday after a tip-off that one was in the city, Jan said. At least three of the dead were shopkeepers, he said.
Hours before the suicide attack, a bomb in a camera exploded in a shop in a central market in the city, killing one man and wounding seven, officials said. Mohammadi, the Khost health director, said wounded victims had said the blast was linked to a private argument, not the Taliban insurgency, and had followed a fight between two rival groups late on Saturday. Police said the cause of the blast was being investigated.
In the neighbouring province of Paktia meanwhile, a mob of Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol early on Sunday, kicking off a three-hour battle, a government spokesman said. “Five enemies were killed and their bodies were left at the battlefield,” Din Mohammad Darwaish said. “One policeman was also martyred and another was wounded.”
Seven rockets were also fired at a US-led military base, Camp Salerno, north of Khost city overnight. There were no casualties reported.
Violence linked to the Taliban has steadily increased in the past few years. The growing Afghan army said however on Sunday it was in a better position to confront the violence. “Now we have 46,200 soldiers and the number will increase to 64,000 by the end of the year,” Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters. The government had more than five billion dollars for its development, much of which would be spent on equipping the ground and air forces, he said. “On the contrary, the enemy is in a much worse position. They have lost their hideouts, last year’s operations has also weakened the enemy. “The enemy does not have the capacity to fight us, that is why they resort to roadside bombings or suicide attacks.”