Suicide bomber kills Afghan provincial official

Taliban insurgents have vowed to intensify their attacks in Afghanistan this year, using suicide and roadside bombings in a campaign to bring down the Afghan government and eject the international forces that support it.

The latest incident took place in the Baak district of Khost province, some 150 km (90 miles) east of the capital Kabul.

"The suicide bomber on foot attacked the detective while he was going to work," provincial district governor Sayed Ahmad Khan said. "No civilians were killed or wounded in the attack."

Separately, a convoy belonging to foreign forces fired on a civilian car wounding three people including a woman in the centre of Kabul city on Friday, police and witnesses said.

More details were not immediately available.

Another suicide bomber targeted a military convoy belonging to international troops in the city of Jalalabad, about 115 km (71) miles east of Kabul, wounding two soldiers and an interpreter, a provincial official said.

Most of the soldiers operating in eastern Afghanistan are Americans.

Violence in Afghanistan has this year hit its worst level since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, prompting some in the Afghan government and its allies to consider talks with the Taliban insurgents to end the war.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)