Roadside bomb kills 4 Afghan cops in eastern province

Four Afghan policemen were killed Sunday as a roadside bomb went off in the country's eastern province of Nangarhar, the provincial government said in a statement.

"Four members of Afghan Border Police died following a roadside bombing in Khawari area of Muhmad Dara district at around 10 a.m. local time Sunday," the statement said.

The Nangarhar province with Jalalabad as its capital is lying 120 km east of national capital Kabul.

A police vehicle was also destroyed in the attack in the district bordering Pakistan, it added.

Earlier on Sunday, up to six Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel were killed and four ALP or community police officers wounded when Taliban insurgents launched attacks against two ALP checkpoints in Muqur district in eastern Ghazni province 125 km south of Kabul.

In southern Helmand province, two Taliban were killed as militants launched an armed attack against police checkpoint in Sargodar area of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah at early Sunday morning.

Five Afghan cops and two Taliban insurgents were also wounded in the gunfight lasting for an hour in the province, some 555 km south of Kabul.

The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, has intensified attacks since late last month when they launched an annual rebel offensive against Afghan and about 100,000 NATO-led forces stationed in the country.