4 killed, 18 injured in south Afghan suicide attack

Four people were killed and 18 others injured after a suicide car bombing targeted a police officer's house in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of southern Afghan province of Helmand on Wednesday morning, a provincial government spokesman said.
"A suicide car bombing went off near the Naw Zad District police chief's house in Lashkar Gah city at around 10:50 a.m. local time, killing three police officers and the bomber on the spot," spokesman Omar Zwak told Xinhua.
The injured, including two policemen and 16 civilians, were shifted to a nearby hospital in the city, 555 km south of Afghan capital of Kabul, the official added.
Unofficial sources said that the police chief of Naw Zad, Abdullah Khan, was among the injured.
No group has claimed responsibility yet for the attack, but the Taliban insurgent group routinely claims responsibility for such attacks.
The Taliban has intensified attacks over the past couple of months as the NATO and U.S. forces are withdrawing from the country. The war-torn country is due to take over the responsibility for its own security from NATO-led troops by the end of year.
In an unrelated development, four Taliban militants were killed after they launched attacks on security checkpoints in northern Kunduz province overnight, an army source told Xinhua earlier on the day, adding no security force member was hurt in the attack which took place in outskirts of provincial capital Kunduz city.
More than 41,000 NATO-led coalition troops, down from the peak of 130,000 in 2010, are stationed in Afghanistan. Nearly 29,000 of them are Americans and the United States plans to trim its forces to less than 10,000 next year.