A Taliban suicide bomber struck a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one policeman and wounding three, while gunmen killed two Afghan truck drivers on a road in the country's east, officials said. The attacks reflect the militants' persistent campaign against the Western-backed Afghan government, which last month signed a security deal with the United States and a separate agreement with NATO allowing over 10,000 foreign troops to train and advise Afghan forces after the international combat mission ends at the end of the year. More than a decade after U.S. forces helped topple the Taliban in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Afghanistan is still at war with the Islamic militant group, which regularly carries out attacks, mainly targeting security forces. In Saturday's bombing, the attacker, dressed in a police uniform, walked into the compound housing the police headquarters in Lashkhar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, a local police spokesman said. He was stopped before entering the compound's main building where a security meeting was underway but he managed to detonate his explosives, killing one policeman and wounding three others, said Fared Obiad, the spokesman. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to media. The Helmand provincial capital was also the scene of a Taliban suicide car bombing on Wednesday that targeted a former police chief but killed five other people. Also Saturday, gunmen opened fire and killed the two truck drivers in eastern Khost province, said Mubariz Mohammad Zadran, the spokesman for the provincial governor. The two were working for a local construction company and were taking gravel for a road under construction when they came under attack in Bak district, said Zadran. Also in the same province, the governor's office said two police officers and one civilian were killed in the provincial capital, Khost, when a bomb-rigged bicycle was detonated by remote control on Friday. Three policemen and another civilian were wounded in that attack. In other reports, three civilians died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in southern Uruzgan province, said Dost Mohammad Nayab, spokesman for the provincial governor. Eleven people were also wounded in that explosion, which occurred in Chora district late on Friday afternoon. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Khost and Uruzgan. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/112813.aspx
