Afghan police on Friday shot dead a would-be assailant and captured two others as they planned to attack a government reception marking the Muslim holiday of Eidul Fitr, AFP reported officials as saying. The gunmen were intercepted in an exchange of fire a few minutes away from the governor’s office in the western city of Herat, near the border with Iran, police chief Juma Khan Adil said. “These terrorists were planning an attack on government officials including the governor. We had information about it,” Adil told AFP. An AFP reporter saw the blood-covered body of a man in a four-by-four vehicle at the side of the road in central Herat, a short distance from where officials were celebrating Eid at the governor’s office.
Meanwhile, an explosion killed four policemen and wounded 14 more, including 10 civilians, in a bazaar in southern Afghanistan, Reuters quoted a British military spokesman as saying. He said the blast happened in a bazaar close to a mosque in the town of Gereshk in the province of Helmand.