9 killed in violent attacks in Afghanistan

Nine civilians were killed while three others wounded in attacks in Afghanistan, authorities said on Monday. In one attack, an anti-Taliban local leader along with two of his body-guards was killed in a Taliban ambush attack in eastern Ghazni province earlier on Monday. "Local leader Mohammad Habbas and two of his body-guards were killed in Andar district as a result of a clash early Monday morning," the deputy Provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told Xinhua, adding three anti-Taliban fighters were wounded in the engagement. On Sunday evening, two staffs of Afghan National Solidarity Program (NSP) were shot dead in Takhta Pul district of southern province of Kandahar. They were kidnapped on Wednesday April 9. Another three kidnapped workers were released by the militants. The NSP program is an initiative by the government which aims to rehabilitate and develop far-flung villages in the war-torn country. Helmand and Kandahar are notorious for poppy growing and is a known Taliban hotbed. In neighboring Helmand province, the bullet-riddle bodies of four kidnapped workers of a local construction company were found in Gereshk district late on Sunday. The Taliban insurgent group has intensified their attack as the spring known as the fighting season in the war-hit country is drawing near. The Taliban warned people not to support the government and foreign troops. More than 2,900 civilians were killed and nearly 5,700 wounded in conflicts and Taliban-led attacks in the war-torn country last year, according to official figures.