Taliban checkpoint attack kills four in Afghanistan's Herat

Meanwhile, a director of a local TV station was kidnapped in the eastern Nangarhar province and a suspected US drone strike in the Paktika province killed a local government employee believed to have links to militants.

FILE PHOTO: An Afghan police officer keeps watch at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on November 20, 2018.
Reuters

FILE PHOTO: An Afghan police officer keeps watch at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on November 20, 2018.

Taliban militants targeted a police checkpoint in the western Herat province, setting off a battle in which a policeman and three civilians were killed, according to a provincial official in Herat.

Police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada said six of the attackers were also killed in the battle late on Tuesday.

The Taliban effectively control nearly half the country and carry out daily attacks that mainly target security forces.

In the eastern Nangarhar province, meanwhile, the director of a local TV station was kidnapped.

Attahullah Khogyani, the governor's spokesman, said the TV director, known as Engineer Zelmia, was kidnapped late on Tuesday. Zelmia's driver was shot and killed.

No one immediately claimed the abduction, but the Taliban and Daesh are both active in Nangarhar.

In the eastern Paktika province, a suspected US drone strike killed a local government employee believed to have links to militants, said Shah Mohammad Aryan, spokesman for the provincial police chief. 

He said the strike late on Tuesday took place in an area on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Sharan, where militants have been known to stage rocket attacks on the city.

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