At Least Eight Killed In Fuel Tanker Blast In Central Afghanistan

By RFE/RL

Afghan officials say at least eight people were killed and more than 20 wounded after a bomb attached to a fuel tanker exploded in northern Afghanistan.

Officials said on November 1 that the blast occurred overnight in the center of Charikar, the capital of Parwan Province, some 60 kilometers north of Kabul.

All of those killed were said to be civilians. At least eight of the wounded were in critical condition.

"The explosion of the fuel tanker was the result of a sticky bomb but the fire spread to a passing passenger bus," provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman Mamozai said.

Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the provincial governor, said the bus was travelling to the Afghan capital, Kabul, and was full at the time of the explosion.

In the northern province of Balkh, the deputy provincial police chief, General Abdul Razaq Qaderi, said that a suicide car bomb targeted a district police commander, killing one person.

Qaderi said that the target of the attack, Qala-e Zal district police commander Nabi Gechi, and nine other people were wounded.

The official said Gechi did not suffer life-threatening injuries. At least three students were said to be among those wounded.

No one claimed either attack, which come as the Western-backed government in Kabul is struggling to beat back insurgents in the wake of the exit of most NATO forces in 2014.

On October 31, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside Kabul’s so-called "Green Zone," where many embassies and the head offices of major international organizations are located, killing at least four people and wounding dozens more.

The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack, which officials said was carried out by a teenager.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and dpa