JALALABAD: Three policemen were killed and six wounded on Thursday when a bomb planted by the Taliban inside their minibus exploded in eastern Afghanistan, a local official said.
"The explosive material was set in the bus and went off when the policemen were en route to work" Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, told AFP.
"Three policemen were killed and six other were wounded in this incident," he said.
The minibus was transporting members of the Afghan National Police (ANP) in Jalalabad, the main town of Nangarhar province.
The blast was immediately claimed by the Taliban.
"Our man planted the bomb inside the vehicle and it killed nine policemen and injured two others," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
Taliban are known to exaggerate claims for their attacks.
A spokesman for the local provincial hospital, Dr Sayed Afandi Sayed said they had received three bodies and were treating six wounded policemen.
"All of the casualties we have received are police officers. The condition of the injured is normal," he said.
The Taliban have increasingly targeted Afghan security forces, and claimed they were behind an audacious assault inside the defence ministry in Kabul on Monday that killed at least two Afghan soldiers.
The Islamist militia said the target of that attack was the French defence minister Gerard Longuet, who is visiting Afghanistan but was not in the building at the time.
Afghan forces are due to take increasing responsibility in their own country in the coming years as international troops hand over control of security, a process due to be completed in 2014.
Around 130,000 international troops are deployed in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, who have been waging a vicious insurgency since they were ousted from power in the 2001 US-led invasion.
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