JALALABAD/KABUL: Twin explosions on Saturday in the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad killed three people and injured 20 others, local officials said.
One child and two women were killed, said Mohammad Shoieb Sahak, deputy head of Nangarhar Regional Hospital.
Eight security forces were among the casualties, said Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial government.
“In today’s incident, my sister and her daughters have been victims,” said Sami Ul Haq, a resident of Nangarhar, visiting his family at the hospital. One of his nieces was killed and the other wounded, along with her mother, in the attack, he said.
“It is such a misery.”
It was not clear what caused the explosions.
No group took immediate responsibility. Islamic State emerged in Nangarhar in 2015 on the porous border with Pakistan to become one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous militant groups for its bombing and complex attacks.
Fighting between militant groups, and between the Taliban and Afghan forces has intensified in recent weeks amid recurring peace talks.
Meanwhile, an Afghan official says Taliban have killed at least four policemen when they stormed a security checkpoint in northern Sari Pul province.
Mohammad Noor Rahmani, head of the provincial council, said five others were wounded in Saturday’s attack on the outskirts of the province’s capital city.
Police in eastern Ghazni province say Taliban also launched attacks on security checkpoints there on Saturday, killing three personnel and wounding seven others.
A spokesman for the provincial police chief, Ahmad Khan Serat, said police killed seven insurgents during the gunbattle.
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Ghazni, but made no statement on Sari Pul.
