4 dead, 18 injured as bomb hits army bus in Afghanistan

In the eastern Nangarhar province, a presidential palace guard was shot dead inside his home in an attack that also wounded his mother, said Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor.

“Six civilians died and nine were injured in a blast”, said Musa Khan Kharuti.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in an email to media.

Last week, a Taliban suicide bomber struck a police base in central Kabul Monday, killing 20 Afghan police officers and injuring at least 32 others, according to a statement from the global military coalition in Afghanistan.

The militant group is stepping up attacks nationwide in the 15th year of its insurgency against the Western-backed government in Kabul.

Afghan security forces have pressed on clearing the militants in restive provinces as Taliban militants have been attempting to take territory and consolidate their positions during the winter in the Central Asian country.

Munir Ahmad Farhad, spokesman for the provincial governor in Balkh, says the suicide-bomber was on foot when he targeted the army vehicle on Monday morning.

On Monday afternoon another suicide attacker blew himself up among a crowd of people queueing outside a bakery in Yahyakhail, a remote district in the volatile southeastern province of Paktika on the border with Pakistan.