5 killed, 4 wounded in 2 targeted shootings in E. Afghanistan: officials

Publish: 9:36 PM, February 16, 2021 | Update: 9:36 PM, February 16, 2021

JALALABAD,  – At least five people, including a police officer, were killed and four others wounded after gunmen in two rickshaws fired in two separate locations in the capital of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, local officials confirmed.

The two shootings occurred in the morning rush hour when gunmen in two rickshaws fired on a police pick-up truck and another vehicle with a medical doctor and his guards aboard driving in Police District (PD) 3 and PD 4 of Jalalabad city, a security official told Xinhua anonymously.

Four people, including two policemen, were wounded in the apparently coordinated shootings, the source said, accusing Taliban militants of the
attack. Farid Khan, a local police spokesman, confirmed the incidents, saying Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers were investigating the
cases.

“The provincial police have launched a search operation to find the culprits behind the incidents,” he said. Furthermore, a service member of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) was shot and killed in Dasht-e-Barchi locality, PD 18 of the country’s national capital, Kabul earlier on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday’s shootings were the latest in a string of targeted killings in the war-torn country. Scores of government employees, security forces members and local elders, as well as religious figures, have been killed in targeted attacks in recent months across Afghanistan.