KABUL, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 23 militants were killed and 30 others including 10 police injured as Afghan police in pre-emptive offensives thwarted Taliban attempts to target police bases with motor bombs on Thursday, police said.
In the latest wave of violent incidents, Taliban militants were attempting to take an explosive-laden car to a police base in the eastern Wardak province Thursday morning but police identified the suspected car and opened fire, exploding it which killed eight insurgents and wounded seven others, provincial government spokesman Mohibullah Sharifi said.
The militants were planning to take the explosive-borne car into the base at 04:00 a.m. local time, but the guards around the base suspected the car and tried to stop it. They opened fire, exploding the vehicle which left eight dead and seven injured.
Four policemen were also injured next to the site of the blast, the official added.
This is the second vehicle blast in the insurgency-battered Afghanistan in a single day on Thursday.
In the first blast which followed by a gunfight in the Zabul province early Thursday, 15 militants were killed 26 others including six policemen injured, provincial police chief Hekmatullah Kuchi said.
"Taliban rebels detonated an explosive-laden military vehicle next to a police base in Norak area, 40 km outside provincial capital Qalat city at 01:00 a.m. local time today and the blast was followed by gunfight which lasted for a while, and as a result 15 militants were killed and 26 others including 20 militants and six policemen injured," Kuchi told Xinhua.
The police guard ordered the driver to stop but he refused, and then police opened fire, the official said, adding the driver detonated his vehicle.
An increase of attacks by Afghan militants has been seen since the start of the intra-Afghan dialogue which started in Qatar, capital Doha on Sept. 12 to find a negotiated solution to Afghanistan's prolonged war.
The Afghan government has been accusing the Taliban of escalating the war to sabotage the ongoing peace process.
According to Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian, the Taliban outfit has conducted 575 attacks including six suicide bombings on government interests over the past two weeks, which killed security personnel and injured 251 civilians.
Rejecting the claim as fabricated, Mohammad Naeem, the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Doha in talks with local media said that the armed group has reduced violence and instead blamed Afghan forces for mounting pressure to interrupt the peace dialogue. Enditem
