Suicide attack kills seven policemen in Afghanistan

KABUL - A suicide car bomb targeted a convoy of Afghan and NATO forces in the northern province of Kunduz Thursday, killing seven policemen and injuring 13 other people, a district governor said.

The bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into one of the vehicles in the province’s Emam Saheb district, Mohammad Ayoub Haqyar told DPA.

“Seven policemen were killed in the attack and six other police and seven civilians were injured,” he said, adding that a police unit commander was among those killed.

A soldier from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was injured and two military vehicles were damaged, Colonel Paul-Georg Weber, an ISAF spokesman in the region, said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that one of their bombers, Hamdullah, carried out the attack, killing 20 NATO soldiers and 45 Afghan forces. Taliban often exaggerate the death toll they inflict.

Hundreds of German and US troops are stationed in the province as part of 140,000 NATO and US personnel currently based in the country.

Weber said that German troops were not involved in the incident.

Taliban militants, who control large swathes of southern and eastern Afghanistan, are also active in Kunduz and neighbouring Baghlan, two provinces located in an otherwise comparatively peaceful northern region.

Separately, a roadside bomb struck a police vehicle in the eastern outskirts of Kabul city Thursday, damaging the vehicle, but causing no casualties, the interior ministry said in a statement.