Police officers among 10 dead in suicide attack

KUNDUZ CITY (PAN): Counterterrorism and traffic police officers were among 10 people killed and 19 others wounded in a suicide attack in the northern province of Kunduz on Saturday, officials said.

The bomber detonated his suicide vest in the main square of Kunduz City at 5:30pm, the provincial police spokesman, Syed Sarwar Hussaini, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Some security personnel, including Col. Mistari Zmarai, the counterterrorism officer, and Col. Syed Aslam Sadat, the traffic police head, were among the dead.

Without giving a specific death toll, he said many others were wounded in the bombing.

However, the governor’s spokesman, Inayatullah Khaleeq, said 10 people were killed in the blast and 19 others, including police, injured.

According to witnesses, 14 people were killed and 15 others wounded. The Pajhwok reporter saw at the scene several vehicles that were damaged. Windowpanes of nearby buildings and shops were smashed.

The bodies of five policemen and three injured civilians were brought to Herat Zonal Hospital, said the surgical ward head, Dr. Shahryar.

Security personnel, meanwhile, accused the Taliban of conducting the suicide attack, but the insurgents have not yet commented on the incident.

myn/mud

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