(dpa) - Five police officers were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled roadside bomb in south-eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday morning, police sources said.
The police personnel, who were on their way from Sabari district of Khost province towards the provincial capital, were struck by a remote-controlled roadside bomb blast, provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoub Khan said.
Khan could not immediately confirm the police death toll. However, another police official who would talk only on condition of anonymity, said that five police officers were killed in the explosion.
Khan said the police personnel "were using a civilian car just to avoid any attack on themselves, but I don't know why they were still targeted."
Taliban militants have been waging war against the Afghan and international forces in the country since the ousting of their regime in late 2001.
They have recently heavily relied on suicide and roadside attacks as part of their campaign to topple the Western-backed Afghan government.
Both tactics, which are widely believed to have been copied from insurgents in Iraq, have proven to be very effective.