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Afghanistan attacks kill 20 on day of violence | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Taliban gunmen in Afghanistan have been accused of killing 12 landmine clearers on a day of attacks that saw at least eight other people killed. | |
Twelve other mine clearers were injured when the Taliban struck in Helmand province, police said, adding that four gunmen were later killed. | |
A suicide bomber killed seven soldiers on a bus in Kabul and a court official was shot dead elsewhere in the capital. | |
Taliban attacks have mounted as the US and Nato wind down their mission. | |
As well as the de-miners killed, several others were reported missing, believed abducted. | |
They came under attack near the former British base of Camp Bastion by gunmen reportedly riding motorcycles. | |
Troops later engaged the attackers, killing four and capturing three, police spokesman Farid Ahmad Obaid told reporters. | |
Afghanistan remains one of the most heavily mined nations in the world after decades of continuous conflict, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports from Kabul. | |
Attacks on de-miners are not infrequent, our correspondent says. In April, Taliban gunmen killed 12 of them in Logar province. | |
A spokesman for the UN-supported humanitarian mine action centre in Afghanistan deplored Saturday's attack. | |
Afghanistan's minefields | |
Sources: Mine Action Programme in Afghanistan, Halo Trust | |
Violent day | |
Elsewhere, In the second suicide attack in as many days, a bomber targeted an army bus in Kabul. | |
An Afghan news agency tweeted a picture showing a plume of smoke rising from a burning vehicle. | |
The attack appears to have followed the pattern of the previous attack, which left six soldiers dead, our correspondent says. | |
Earlier on Saturday, Atiqullah Rawoofi, the head of the Afghan supreme court's secretariat, was shot dead by two men on a motorbike as he walked from his home to his car. | |
Two Nato soldiers died on Friday when insurgents attacked a convoy close to the main international base north of Kabul. | |
The nationality of the two Nato soldiers was not given immediately. | |
They were the first Nato deaths since December, raising to 65 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan during 2014, 50 of them from the US. | |
Most foreign forces will leave the country in under three weeks, although about 12,000 Nato soldiers will remain to train and advise Afghan security forces from 1 January. | Most foreign forces will leave the country in under three weeks, although about 12,000 Nato soldiers will remain to train and advise Afghan security forces from 1 January. |
On a visit to the north Afghan city of Mazar-e-Shari, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Afghans were "prepared and determined to take over responsibility for security in their country". | |
But in view of the Taliban threat, foreign forces were "determined to stand by the Afghan security forces and to counsel them on how to counter this threat", she added. | |
Our correspondent says the recent violence has provoked fresh debate about how the Taliban have been able to evade the apparently rigorous security in the capital. | |
Last month, Kabul's police chief resigned following several attacks on foreigners and locals in the city. | |
President Ashraf Ghani, who took power in September, has vowed to bring peace after decades of conflict. | President Ashraf Ghani, who took power in September, has vowed to bring peace after decades of conflict. |