Suicide bomber kills 4 in Afghanistan

Three policemen and their driver were killed when a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up near their vehicle in troubled southern Afghanistan on Friday, police and the rebels said. The officers were in a private car being driven to Lashkar Gah, the main town in Helmand province, when the bomber approached on foot and detonated the explosives, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said.
Another policeman who was in the car escaped with injuries, while seven other people were wounded in the attack, which happened just outside the city on a narrow strip of road with shops on both sides.
"Three policemen and a civilian were martyred, a policeman and seven civilians were wounded in the suicide blast today," he told AFP.
The vehicle caught fire and two bodies were stuck in the wreckage, witness Ahmad Shah told AFP, adding that the road was littered with blood and body parts.
Andiwal blamed the attack on "enemies of Afghanistan," a term often used to describe hardline Taliban rebels fighting a bloody insurgency since they were forced from power by a US-led offensive in 2001.
A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call from an unknown location.