Kabul: Five people have been killed by a
roadside bomb in a region of western Afghanistan under Taliban
control, local police said on Friday.
The incident happened in the province of Badghis
yesterday, provincial police chief Sayed Ahmad Sameh said,
adding the dead were two women and three men.
They were travelling in a public mini-van when the bomb
exploded in the Joi Ganj area, Sameh said.
"The Taliban rule that area and government forces can`t
go there because of planted mines," he said.
In western Farah province, which like Badghis is
experiencing escalating violence as Taliban influence spreads
to previously peaceful areas, three militants were killed by
police in a shootout late yesterday, police said.
The gun battle followed an attempt by militants to kidnap
a truck driver and seize his truck loaded with asphalt for
road construction, said Ikramuddin Yawar, chief of police for
western Afghanistan.
The shootout happened between the Bala Buluk and Dilaram
districts, which have been blighted by heavy Taliban presence
in recent months, he said.
The Taliban are spreading across the country, Western
military intelligence officials say, and the effectiveness of
their tactics, which include suicide attacks and remote-controlled roadside bombings, is growing.
These attacks are claiming an increasing number of
civilian victims -- many more than government forces -- though
Taliban propaganda often successfully turns the blame on
international troops fighting for their eradication.
PTI
