A roadside bomb killed three private security guards on Saturday while two policemen and 15 Taliban died in fighting overnight in fresh violence in Afghanistan, officials said. The bomb, which struck the vehicle on a road in the Zahiri district of Kandahar province, also injured two other guards, provincial police commander Sayed Aqa Saqib told AFP.Separately, nine Taliban rebels and a policeman were killed in intense fighting Friday night in Ghazni Province, a district administration official said. The clashes in the remote, Taliban-dominated Giru district lasted several hours, official Mahboob-Ullah told AFP. “The bodies of the enemy casualties have been recovered. One of our policemen was martyred,” he said. In another incident Friday night in eastern Paktika province Taliban rebels clashed with police in which six insurgents were killed and a policeman also died, the Interior Ministry said. Two policemen were also injured in the clash in Khushamand district, reported AFP.
On Saturday, a rocket landed inside a hospital compound in Kabul, but caused no casualties or damage, hospital officials said, reported Reuters. “It was 11pm when a rocket hit inside the Wazir Akbar Khan compound,” said Dr Akramzada who works at the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital. “No one was wounded or killed, and the hospital received no damage. It hit a garden inside the hospital.” No rebel group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Meanwhile, investigations were underway into the killing of three British soldiers by a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet and intended for Afghanistan’s Taliban rebels. According to AFP, the “friendly fire” incident in the southern province of Helmand late Thursday was one of the deadliest in a string of such mistakes in the campaign against the Taliban. The British soldiers were struck by a bomb dropped by a US F-15 jet called in to help during a battle near the massive Kajaki Dam, which troops are fighting to secure from the Taliban militia. Three were killed outright and two wounded. The US confirmed the deaths had been caused by a US bomb and said an inquiry would be launched.