A bomb ripped through a government vehicle in eastern Afghanistan yesterday and killed five people while the army and police reported they had killed 54 Taleban in clashes at the weekend. The remote-controlled bomb in eastern Nangarhar province destroyed a district’s top three officials — the chief of Khogyani district, his police commander and his intelligence chief. A policeman and a passerby were also killed, Nangarhar police spokesman Ghafoor Khan said.The officials were traveling to a village to visit a school that the Taleban-led militants torched late Sunday, Khan said. Purported Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack, saying his Taleban fighters detonated the bomb, which was planted on a road.
The army, meanwhile, reported it had killed 30 “enemy elements” on Saturday in an operation with foreign troops in southern Uruzgan province. Police put the toll at 20. In another clash in the same area in Charchino district on Sunday, three “enemies of the people of Afghanistan” were killed and four soldiers were wounded, a Defense Ministry statement said.