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Taliban Police Chief Killed In Bomb Attack In Eastern Afghanistan


A man inspects damage at the Gozar-e Sayed Abad Mosque a day after a suicide bombing in Kunduz on October 9.
A man inspects damage at the Gozar-e Sayed Abad Mosque a day after a suicide bombing in Kunduz on October 9.

A Taliban police chief has been killed and 11 people wounded in a bomb blast in Asadabad, the capital of Kunar Province, in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities say.

Witnesses told RFE/RL that the bomb targeted a vehicle carrying the Taliban police chief for the Shigal district on October 14.

Local Taliban officials did not disclose details of the incident.

A doctor at the Asadabad Central Hospital, who requested anonymity, told RFE/RL that 12 people injured in the blast had been hospitalized. The doctor confirmed Abdullah Irfan, the Taliban-appointed police chief of Shigal district, had succumbed to his injuries.

Seven civilians, including a schoolboy, were also among the wounded, the doctor added.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-K) group, which is active in eastern Afghanistan, has claimed similar attacks on the Taliban in the past.

The Taliban has battled IS-K since its emergence in Afghanistan in 2014.

IS-K has claimed responsibility for some of the most recent attacks, including a suicide bombing among worshippers last week in a Shi'ite mosque in Kunduz Province that killed around 100 people.

With reporting by AFP

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