At least 23 people were killed in clashes and bomb attacks around Afghanistan, officials reported Wednesday, according to DPA. The tally included seven Afghan army and four police forces killed in two attacks by Taliban forces, seven rebels and three Afghan construction workers killed in separate clash, and two bombers who were the only victims in their separate suicide attacks. In one incident, an army convoy was travelling in the De-Wazekhowa district of Paktika province when one of its 10 vehicles was blown up by the roadside bomb, killing seven soldiers and wounding another, said Akram Khepilwak, provincial police chief. General Murad Ali, the Army's eastern commander, confirmed the attack and said it occurred in the Gowashti area near the Pakistani border. Taliban forces attacked the administrative headquarters of Qarabagh district of southern Ghazni province on Tuesday noon, and in the ensuing gunbattle seven Taliban were killed and 15 others were wounded, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The clash lasted six hours and left three road construction workers who were near the district building killed. Five other armed militants were arrested, the statement said. In a separate incident, four Afghan policemen were killed and three wounded in an ambush by a group of unknown gunmen in the western province of Herat while a suicide attack against a district governor left only the bomber dead, officials said. A vehicle carrying police officials from Herat's Guzara district was ambushed Tuesday night in the Rebat Sulaiman area of the district, said Noor Mohammad Nikzad, spokesman for Herat's police chief.
