KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A spate of attacks across Afghanistan on Sunday killed three NATO service members, an Afghan government official and three police officers, officials said.
Meanwhile, officials said that insurgents have killed six Afghan deminers from a group of 32 who were kidnapped last week in the country’s southwest.
Bodies of five of the missing deminers were recovered, and local officials were able to confirm that at least one more was killed, said Farah province’s deputy police chief, Mohammad Ghaws Malyar. All of the dead were beheaded, he said.
The group of Afghan deminers was ambushed July 6 while driving to a work site in the province. Two have been released with the help of local tribal elders, Chief Malyar said.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb attack in southern Helmand province killed a Danish soldier who was on patrol, while two other NATO service members were killed in insurgent attacks in the south and east, according to NATO and the Danish government.
The Danish army said the soldier was airlifted to a field hospital but his life couldn’t be saved. Denmark is to start withdrawing its combat units this year and gradually shift its role into training Afghan forces.
NATO did not provide details or the nationalities of the other two dead service members. The coalition typically waits for national authorities to make such announcements.
The latest deaths bring to 15 the number of international service members killed so far this month. So far this year, 286 international troopers have been killed in Afghanistan.
To the northwest, an Afghan district government’s top official was killed by a roadside bomb while driving to his office in what appeared to be a targeted attack.
The bomb was detonated remotely as the vehicle carrying Mohammad Dawood, the chief of Muqur district in Badghis province, passed by. Mr. Dawood was killed in the blast, and four others in the vehicle were wounded, said Sharafuddin Majidi, a provincial government spokesman.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but it was characteristic of insurgent strikes against government officials seen as collaborators with the international forces in the country.
And in the volatile southern city of Kandahar, a roadside bomb killed three police officers early Sunday, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the provincial police chief.
The attacks followed at least two sizable battles with insurgents on Saturday. Four Taliban fighters were killed in daylong fighting in Ghazni province in the east, said Sayed Abrar Agha, the head of a group that coordinates provincial security operations with international forces.
And in central Uruzgan province, a raid on insurgents sparked fighting that left 10 militants and three Afghan police officers dead, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Associated Press writer Heidi Vogt contributed to this report from Kabul.
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