Officials and police among eight killed in Afghanistan

Kabul, February 9 (RHC)-- A string of attacks in Afghanistan has killed four government employees and four policemen, officials said.  In the capital, Kabul, gunmen on Tuesday opened fire in the Bagh-e-Daud neighbourhood and killed four employees of the ministry for rural development, according to Ferdaws Faramarz, spokesman for the city’s police chief.

Elsewhere in Kabul, a sticky bomb attached to a car exploded, wounding another government employee, he added.  Also on Tuesday, four police officers were killed and a fifth wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in western Herat province’s Zenda Jan district, provincial governor Wahid Qatali said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.  Afghan and U.S. officials have blamed the Taliban for the wave of violence, although the group has rejected the charges.  Violence in Afghanistan has been relentless while peace talks between the Taliban and government representatives that started in September in Qatar have now stalled.

Meanwhile, there has been a nationwide spike in bombings, targeted killings and violence.  The capital Kabul has seen near-daily attacks during the busy morning commute, targeting prominent Afghans including politicians, journalists, activists, judges, and religious scholars.

Tuesday’s attacks came a day after three bomb blasts rattled the capital, killing at least one person.  Last week, Judge Hafizullah was attacked in an ambush in the eastern city of Jalalabad as he headed to work. He was the third court official to be killed in less than a month.