7 killed in attacks in Afghanistan

Some seven people were killed and eight others wounded in separate incidents in Afghanistan on Saturday, police said.

In one incident, three children were killed and six persons were wounded after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) struck a tricycle in the country's southern province of Kandahar at around midday, the provincial police spokesman said.

"The stricken vehicle was carrying nine people. It touched off the IED along a road between Arghistan and Spin Boldak districts. The injured, including three females, were shifted to a nearby hospital by the security force," spokesman Zia Duranni told Xinhua.

Earlier on the day, three policemen were killed in a drive-by shooting at a security checkpoint near Gardez, the provincial capital of eastern Paktia province, provincial police Chief Gen. Qadar Gul Zadran told Xinhua.

The attackers fled the scene shortly after the attack and an investigation was launched into the incident, he said.

In northern Kunduz province, a Taliban IED expert named Nemat Ullah was killed and two others wounded after an IED he was building detonated accidently in a house in Dasht-e-Arch district of the province, according to the district governor.

Earlier on Saturday, security forces defused an IED and detained one militant after the detainee tried to attack a potential target in southern part of the country's capital city of Kabul.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different places of the country.

About 600 civilians were killed and more than 1,340 others wounded in conflict-related violence and Taliban-led attacks in first quarter of the year, according to UN mission in the Asian country. Endit