In a statement released Saturday, the insurgent movement
announced it would step up operations against military bases, convoys and
Afghan officials, including members of the peace council working to reconcile
with top insurgent leaders.
In the deadliest of Sunday's attacks, a man wearing a vest
packed with explosives blew himself up in a bazaar in the Barmal district of
the eastern Paktika province on the border with Pakistan, killing four
civilians and wounding 12, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the provincial
governor's office.
Sher Nawaz, the head of a new district council in the
Shakeen area of Paktika province, was among the dead and was likely the target
of the attack, Afghan said.
In the southwest province of Ghazni, a gunman opened fire on
a checkpoint, killing two policemen and wounding a bystander during an
hour-long battle, provincial police chief Zerawar Zahid said.
In a separate attack in Ghazni, militants detonated a
bicycle rigged with explosives outside the provincial police headquarters
complex, wounding 13 civilians, according to provincial officials.
The wounded included an 11-year-old girl and two young boys.
They had light shrapnel wounds, said Dr. Mohammad Ismail Ibrahimzai, head of
the Ghazni Provincial Hospital.
In the country's south, a suspected militant shot and killed
an Afghan soldier at a checkpoint in Kandahar city, said deputy police chief
Shershah Yousafzai.
In other violence in Kandahar, policemen receiving
NATO-donated supplies including caps and protective eyewear drew guns and
fought over the items, leaving one policeman dead and four wounded, said
Arghandab district governor Shah Mohammad.
