Mazar-I-Sharif: A suicide
bomber targeted a commander in Afghanistan's spy agency on Sunday,
wounding six intelligence officials and killing a child in the
country's increasingly volatile north.
The bomber detonated next to a car carrying the chief of
National Directorate of Security (NDS) for Faryab province at
8:20 am (0350 GMT) in the town of Maymanah, police said.
"The chief of NDS was going to his office when the
attacker, a person wearing a suicide vest, detonated near his
car," Lal Mohammad, police spokesman for the northern region,
said.
Police confirmed the NDS official was wounded and was the
target.
"One eight-year old child was killed, and two other
children and six intelligence officials were wounded in the
attack," said Jawid Dedar, spokesman for the governor of
Faryab province.
The Taliban could not be reached for comment, but the
militia has stepped up targeted assassinations as part of its
10-year insurgency designed to evict US-led foreign troops and
their allied government in Kabul.
Attacks in the Afghan capital and high-profile political
assassinations over the summer have fed perceptions that a
decade after the 2001 US-led invasion, the West is losing the
war in Afghanistan.
In the west, five Afghan soldiers were killed and three
others wounded in a Taliban ambush on Saturday, said defence
ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi.
PTI
First Published: Monday, October 17, 2011, 23:16