Afghanistan explosions target police; at least 4 killed

KABUL, Afghanistan —  A series of explosions hit the Afghan capital on Saturday morning, killing at least four people, including two police officers, officials said.

The deaths occurred when a bomb attached to a police vehicle detonated in western Kabul, police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said. The explosion also wounded two civilians.

In a separate blast earlier Saturday, two police officers were injured when a bomb attached to their car exploded in southern Kabul, Faramarz said.

Maooma Jafari, deputy spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, said four corpses and four wounded people were taken to hospitals following the two explosions.

A third bomb detonated in eastern Kabul but caused no casualties, he said.

There were reports of at least two other blasts elsewhere in the city, but police had no immediate details.

Also Saturday, a senior army officer was killed in northern Balkh province when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb, said Arif Iqbali, a Sholgara district police chief.

Iqbali said Mohammad Tareq, the garrison commander of the army brigade in Balkh was the apparent target and was killed in the attack.

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The latest attacks came as Taliban and Afghan government negotiators held talks in Doha, Qatar, trying to hammer out a peace deal that could put an end to decades of war.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kabul. The militant group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in the capital in recent months, including on educational institutions that killed 50 people, most of them students.

The talks in Doha have been suspended until early January, and there is speculation they could be further delayed.

At the same time, Taliban militants have waged bitter battles against Islamic State fighters, particularly in eastern Afghanistan, while continuing their insurgency against government forces and keeping their promise not to attack U.S. and NATO troops.

Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for last week’s rocket attacks targeting the major U.S. base in Afghanistan. There were no casualties.