A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of police vehicles in south-western Afghanistan Thursday, killing 16 people, including a police commander, and wounding 28, provincial official said, according to dpa. "The bomber, who was wearing women's clothes, killed four policemen and 12 civilians," said Mohammad Younus Rasouli, deputy governor of Farah province. The attack took place in the main market of Farah's Del Aram district, close to the border with Iran. Rasouli said a police commander was among the four police dead. Officials in the provincial hospital gave the number of wounded as 28 with most being civilians. Rasouli said 22 people were wounded in the attack. Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on their website. The statement said the dead police commander was the target, adding that one of their male fighters by the name of Khalid carried out the attack. Ali Khan Hussainzada, chief of the criminal department of police forces in western Afghanistan, said, however, that the bombing was carried out by a woman wearing a burqa. President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in a presidential statement and said "the enemies of Afghanistan, once again showed their cowardly act by using the women's veil." In another development in the south-eastern province of Khost, police shot dead a would-be suicide bomber as he tried to enter the provincial capital, Wazir Padshah, a spokesman for the provincial police chief said. The bomber was shot on Wednesday near a checkpoint in Khost city, he said. The Taliban, Afghanistan's former Islamic fundamentalist ruler, has carried out hundreds of such attacks since its ouster in late 2001 in a US-led invasion. The group carried out more than 160 suicide attacks in the country last year according to UN estimate. In another incident US military said in a statement that coalition forces killed a militant and arrested 13 others in an operation in Garmsir district of southern Helmand province. Garmsir district has been the scene of heavy fighting between the Taliban and US Marines and British forces in the past two weeks. Afghan officials claimed this week that more that 150 insurgents including foreign fighters were killed in their operation in the past week in the district.
