Gunmen armed with machine guns opened fire on people praying at a mosque in central Afghanistan, killing two people and wounding 12 others, while 8 suspected Taliban were killed in southern Afghanistan and 4 police officers wounded in bomb attacks, officials said Wednesday. The assailants, numbering more than five, starting shooting inside the mosque in the Dashte Toop area of Wardak province late Tuesday, said Provincial Police Chief Eiwaz Khan Mazllum. A local teacher was among those killed.
Police are searching for the attackers, who fled after the attack, he said.
Authorities were trying to determine the motive behind the shooting, said Muhibullah, the chief of criminal investigations in the province.
Southern Afghanistan: Meanwhile in Kandahar, NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving eight suspected militants dead and three detained, an official said Wednesday.
The clashes occurred in Zhari district of Kandahar province on Tuesday evening and Wednesday, and there were no casualties among NATO or Afghan forces in the fighting, said the provincial police chief, Sayed Agha Saqib.
A roadside bomb, meanwhile, targeted a police vehicle, in the same district on Wednesday, leaving four officers wounded, Saqib said. Taliban freed a German hostage in Afghanistan on Wednesday after more than two months in captivity, GermanyÂ’s foreign minister said.