Multiple bombings in Afghanistan kill 9

At least nine people, including three assailants, were killed and 22 others wounded in three separate suicide bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, authorities said.

In one attack, one intelligence agency officer was killed and 16 civilians injured when a terrorist detonated a truck bomb in front of a provincial intelligence office in Lashkar Gah city, capital of southern Helmand province.

Thirteen children and two women were among the injured in the blast which occurred around 9 a.m. and also damaged several nearby buildings, the local media reported.

The deadly explosion followed a blast in Kabul in which one civilian and two soldiers died and five people injured.

The bombing took place at the entrance to a high-security area -- where embassies and offices of international organisations are located.

The bombing occurred when a man wearing an explosives jacket tried to enter the Green Zone but detonated his vest after being identified at a security checkpoint in Shash Darak, a diplomatic district in central Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told Tolo News.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group reportedly claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack.

In another incident, a militant detonated an explosives-laden hijacked military armoured vehicle at an Army camp in Nad Ali district, west of Lashkar Gah, killing two soldiers and injuring another one, according to Rahimi.

The Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Helmand province which is notorious for growing poppy and militancy.

The attacks came one day after the country started construction of a major gas project in western Herat province to transfer natural gas from Turkmenistan to neighbouring Pakistan and India.

--IANS

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