Deaths in Afghan bomb attacks

The blast in Lashkar Gah was the second attack to happen over the Eid al-Adha holidays in Afghanistan [Reuters]

A roadside bomb has destroyed a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan, killing a district police chief and two of his bodyguards, police say.

The blast happened late on Sunday as the group drove from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, to Garmser district.

“Mohammad Saifullah, the police chief of Garmser district in Helmand province, was killed along with two bodyguards when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle last night,” Mohammad Hakim Angar, the Helmand police chief, said on Monday.

Helmand has been one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Afghan war, although foreign forces say they have destroyed several major anti-government strongholds in recent months with the help of a troop surge.

Lashkar Gah was one of seven areas handed over to Afghan government control by NATO-led forces in July in a first wave of transition which will see all foreign combat forces leave by the end of 2014.

The attack happened on the same day that seven people were killed by a suicide bomber as they returned from prayers at the start of Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha in Baghlan, northern Afghanistan.

In a second incident in Baghlan, a suicide attack on a jirga [council] member wounded six policemen, including four auxiliary police personnel, on Monday, Munshi Abdul Majid, the provincial governor, said.

The jirga member, Mullah Alam, was unharmed.