Suicide bombers strike at police

Two suicide bombers have continued a weekend of violence in Afghanistan detonating explosives at police installations.

At least 10 people, most of them police, have been killed and nearly 30 others wounded in two separate suicide bombings in southern Afghanistan, police said. Today's attacks followed a deadly weekend in which nine mostly Western soldiers were killed, along with several civilians and militants. in Afghanistan's growing Taliban-led insurgency. One of the suicide attacks was outside the provincial police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.

"Nine bodies have been brought to our hospital," Helmand health department chief Enayatullah Ghafari said. "More than 25 other people, including civilians, have been wounded. They are being treated in our hospital. Most of the casualties are police." Another bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body outside the police headquarters in the turbulent Delaram district of Farah province, police said.

At least one police officer was killed, police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said. Three other people were wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suicide attacks have been trademarks of the Taliban arsenal in the years following the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the repressive Islamist movement from government. The Taliban on Sunday claimed responsibility for a blast that killed four US soldiers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Two British soldiers were killed in Helmand on the same day.

Three other foreign troops died on Saturday, two in attacks and one in a traffic accident. The spike in violence comes amid growing international alarm about how to counter the extremist unrest in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan. *AFP