A suicide bomber blew himself up among Afghan policemen doing their morning exercise in the northeastern city of Kunduz today, killing nine and wounding 25, the government said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the second deadly suicide attack on police in two days, which came as the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Taliban were increasingly targetting civilians, killing nearly 700 last year.
Separately, a provincial governor said two French aid workers abducted this month were in the hands of feared Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, and a Taliban spokesman said Taliban leaders were considering demands for their release.
The bomb attack in Kunduz, 250 km (150 miles) north of Kabul, was the worst in the relatively peaceful north since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. "It happened when the police were exercising next to the governor's building.
Nine police are dead and 25 injured," an Interior Ministry official said. The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign troops from Afghanistan, have launched a wave of suicide attacks in the south and east but attacks in the north are rare. Taliban commander Hayatullah Khan claimed responsibility and said more bombers were ready to strike.
"They are present in all Afghan cities and waiting for orders," he said. Suicide attacks in Afghanistan, almost unheard of three years ago, surged last year to nearly 140 from about 20 in 2005.
There have been numerous attacks this year. On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed seven policemen and a civilian in the eastern town of Khost.