This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
At least six Afghan police officers have been killed in two separate Taliban bombings amid a surge in attacks across the war-torn country.
Three officers were reported killed and 20 other people wounded in a truck bomb explosion in the southern province of Kandahar on July 8.
The police chief of Shah Wali Kot district and civilians were among those wounded.
The predawn blast damaged the district police headquarters and the nearby administrative office, according to provincial governor spokesman Ahmad Bahir Ahmadi.
Ahmadi said there was prior intelligence information about a plot to attack the police headquarters.
The suicide bomber was shot by security forces before he could reach his target, but the explosives detonated, the spokesman said.
In southeastern Ghazni Province, officials said a roadside bomb killed three police officers, including the police chief of Dayak district.
The police chief was inspecting checkpoints early in the morning when the attack occurred, according to the provincial governor’s spokesman, Wahidullah Jamazada.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Hundreds of members of Afghanistan’s security forces and civilians have been killed in recent weeks as the Taliban continued to launch attack across the country.
President Ashraf Ghani on July 6 warned that the spike in violence poses a “serious” threat to the peace process with the Taliban.
A peace deal signed by the Taliban and the United States in February calls for direct negotiations between the militant group and the Western-backed government in Kabul aimed at putting an end to the nearly two-decade-old war in Afghanistan.
