Four killed as bomber blows herself up at Afghan checkpoint

According to local officials, the incident took place in the provincial capital of Jalalabad in Nangarhar Province late on Thursday night after officers from Afghanistan’s intelligence service, or National Directorate of Security (NDS), at the checkpoint stopped a suspicious-looking vehicle with a woman, her three children and four men on board.

The woman, her three children and an officer lost their lives when she detonated her explosives' vest. It is not clear yet what happened to the four men in the car. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Nangarhar is a relatively volatile province in eastern Afghanistan.

Earlier on October 26, at least two security guards were killed and two others wounded in a bomb blast in the eastern province. The incident occurred in the Roshani Meni area in city of Jalalabad when a bomb hit a convoy of security guards with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). Also on Friday, a loud explosion rocked the Afghan capital, Kabul, in a heavily protected area near where many embassies and government buildings are located.

An initial police report indicated that a car exploded in the Sherpoor area of Kabul, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter. Meanwhile, an official also said that gunfire had broken out after the Kabul explosion as the police were on the scene, but there were no immediate details of any damage or casualties.

It came days after a militant attack on the airport complex in the southern city of Kandahar killed 50 people. Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The 2001 attack overthrew the Taliban, but many areas across Afghanistan still face violence and insecurity.