Four Afghan police killed by roadside bomb

Four Afghan policemen were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the country's north-west, the Interior Ministry said today.

Two other officers were injured and their vehicle destroyed in the attack in Faryab province's Ghormach district yesterday, the ministry said.

Elsewhere, three women were killed and four injured when mortars fired by suspected insurgents fell on their homes in Kapisa province, just north of the capital, Kabul.

The insurgents had apparently been targeting the local district government headquarters, the ministry said.

Elsewhere, two people were injured when their tractor ran over a mine in the far south-western province of Nimroz, the ministry said.

The entrenched Taliban insurgency routinely targets Afghan civilians to spread fear and undercut the authority of Afghanistan's central government, whose writ extends little beyond the capital.

Formerly stable areas such as Kapisa have become no-go zones for foreigners and non-governmental organisations as the insurgents increasingly search for targets to bolster their fighting credentials.