Taliban militants step up attacks in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 14 (Reuters) - A bomb exploded near a U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, wounding a policeman, and several Afghan officials were killed in separate attacks linked to Taliban militants.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the guerrillas ambushed and shot dead the deputy chief of Mizan district and several of his colleagues in southern province of Zabul.

Provincial officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the report.

Hours earlier, a bomb exploded in front of a U.S. military base further to the south in Kandahar city, wounding a senior Afghan police official and two of his bodyguards in an attack that police blamed on the ousted Taliban militia.

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