Officials say bombings across Afghanistan kill at least 13

A series of bombings across Afghanistan, including one targeting a police checkpoint in the country's south, killed at least 13 people, authorities said.
The day's deadliest attack targeted the checkpoint on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, killing eight people and wounding 23, said Omar Zwak, the spokesman for the provincial governor. The dead included six civilians and two police officers, he said.
Alam Yar, a doctor at a hospital in Lashkar Gah, said 20 wounded people and four dead bodies had been brought there. A separate roadside bombing killed four people and wounded five, police said.

Afghanistan's army has been fighting to clear large parts of Helmand of Taliban militants. The insurgents have retaliated in recent days with a series of suicide attacks in towns and villages across the province.
In Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan, another bomb exploded near a hospital, killing one civilian and wounding 16, a senior police official said. The official said that the target of the bomb in the provincial capital, Puli Khumri, was a police vehicle, though no police officer was wounded.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists.