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4 policemen killed, 1 injured in roadside bombing in N. Afghanistan

28 May 2012 17:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Four Afghan policemen were killed and one other injured Monday when their patrol hit a roadside bomb in northern province of Baghlan, a provincial source said.

"A unit of Afghan Local Police (ALP) was on routine patrol in Alawudin-e-Mangalah area of Baghlan-e-Markazi district at around 5 p.m. local time but a bomb was detonated through a remote-control device when their patrolling van was passing the area," a security source told Xinhua anonymously.

Afghan Local Police, set up by the government in the summer of 2010, is a community police force defending their villages against Taliban attacks and influence.

The official blamed Taliban for the attack.

In another development, six Taliban militants, who were placing roadside bombs along a road, were killed in an air strike carried out by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Nirkh district of eastern Wardak province in the wee hours Monday, a provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told Xinhua.

Two NATO-led ISAF soldiers were killed when a helicopter crashed in the same district Monday afternoon.

Earlier on Monday, another ISAF aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan, the ISAF confirmed in a statement, adding no fatalities were reported during the incident.

The Taliban insurgents, who has been waging more than a decade- long insurgency, announced on May 2 that they would launched a spring rebel offensive starting from May 3 to target Afghan forces as well as U.S. and NATO troops across the country.