4 Afghan policemen killed in roadside bombing, 3 civilians die in mortar attack

4 Afghan policemen killed in roadside bombing

KABUL — Four Afghan policemen were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the country’s northwest, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

Two others were injured and their vehicle destroyed in the attack Monday in Faryab province’s Ghormach district, the ministry said.

Elsewhere, three women were killed and four injured after mortars fired by suspected insurgents fell on their homes in Kapisa province just north of the capital Kabul.

The insurgents apparently had been targeting the local district government headquarters, the ministry said.

Two people also were wounded when their tractor ran over a mine in the far southwestern province of Nimroz, the ministry said.

The entrenched Taliban insurgency routinely targets Afghan civilians to spread fear and undercut the authority of Afghanistan’s central government, whose writ extends little beyond the capital Kabul. Formerly stable areas such as Kapisa have become no-go zones for foreigners and non-governmental organizations as the insurgents increasingly search for targets to bolster their fighting credentials.