1st LD Writethru: 5 police killed in bomb attack near Kabul in Afghanistan

Some five police personnel had been killed in a bomb attack on the southern outskirts of the Afghan capital of Kabul, a police source said Saturday.

"The explosion occurred late on Friday after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) struck a police van in Khak-e-Jabar district, Kabul province. As a result five Afghan Civil Order Police personnel were killed," the source told Xinhua anonymously.

The unit was travelling towards Kabul city from neighboring Azra district of eastern Logar province before being attacked, the source said.

The source blamed Taliban militant group for the attack. The Taliban have been using IEDs to target security forces, but the lethal weapons have also inflicted casualties on civilians.

An Afghan Interior Ministry official confirmed the incident, saying details about the attack will be released to media later in the day.

Afghan security forces' casualties have risen recently as they struggle against a surge in attacks by Taliban and other anti-government fighters.

The NATO and U.S. forces completed their combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, after 13 years of military presence in the country.

But some 13,000 foreign forces are currently stationed in Afghanistan for the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission to help Afghan forces in the fields of training, advising and backing them in the war on insurgents. Endit