Fresh wave of violence kills 8 in Afghanistan

Eight people, most of them civilians, lost their lives to a fresh wave of violence in different parts of Afghanistan’s western Farah province over the past 24 hours, officials said on Sunday. Two civilians and one policeman were killed when a civilian vehicle struck a roadside bomb on Saturday night in Farah City, the provincial capital, the governor’s spokesman, Abdur Rahman Zhwandai, said. In a similar incident, two civilians were killed and four others were wounded in Pushtrod district, he added. Separately, a notorious rebel commander Syed Azeem was killed along with two of his accomplices during a drone strike in the Pasao area of Khak-i-Safed district, the town’s administrative chief, Abdulkhaliq Noorzai, said. Azeem maintained close ties with Al Qaida and had been involved in insurgent activities, the district intelligence director, Abdul Samad, said. But a Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said the slain individual was a prayer leader in the area and that he had no connection with the movement.