A bomb wounded a candidate in upcoming parliamentary elections as eight policemen, two militants and a civilian were killed in Afghanistan's bloody countdown to the polls, officials said Sunday.
Parliamentary candidate Habibullah Khan from the Garmser district of Helmand province, 600 kilometers (375 miles) south of Kabul, was severely wounded by a bomb placed at the door of his house early Sunday, said district police chief Deljan.
"This was a mine planted for him in front of his gate by the enemies of peace and stability," he added without blaming the attack on any group. Similar attacks in the past have been blamed on the ousted Taleban regime.
In Dishu district also in Helmand province, police chief Haji Amanullah was killed by the Taleban along with his son and three bodyguards in an ambush which left two militants dead.
"In the exchange of fire all five including the police chief were killed and two Taleban bodies were also left in the area," Haji Mohammed Wali, the spokesman for the Helmand governor, told AFP.
In the southern province of Zabul four Afghan policemen were killed in two separate attacks. Three officers guarding a convoy transporting goods to US bases were killed Saturday when it came under fire from Taleban insurgents.
The convoy was on its way from the provincial capital Qalat to US bases in Shinkay district 350 kilometers (218 miles) south of Kabul, said Shinkay's district governor Rozi Khan.
After the exchange of fire it turned back to Qalat. Zabul, which shares a long mountainous border with Pakistan, is one of the provinces worst hit by the insurgency.
A purported Taleban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, claimed responsibility for the convoy attack in a telephone call from an undisclosed location.
Another policeman was killed in the neighbouring Shah Joy district of Zabul in a Taleban attack on the main highway linking the southern city of Kandahar with Kabul.
"One policeman was killed and two were wounded in a one-hour exchange of fire after the Taleban attacked a Kabul-Kandahar highway checkpost," Ghulam Nabi Mullah Khail, the highway police commander, told AFP.
The Taleban also claimed responsibility for that attack. On Saturday Briton David Addison, who had been kidnapped by the Taleban on Wednesday, was found dead in the western province of Farah. On the same day officials confirmed that two missing Japanese tourists had been shot dead in the south. Militants from the Taleban fundamentalist Islamic regime ousted in late 2001 have stepped up attacks before parliamentary elections this month. More than 1,000 people, including hundreds of militants, have been killed this year. The dead include over 50 US troops killed in hostile fire in what has been the bloodiest year for American forces in the country.