KABUL: Blasts hit two buses in western Kabul on Saturday, killing at least seven people, according to police. The explosions took place in a neighbourhood dominated by the minority Hazara community where similar attacks on buses earlier this month killed 12 civilians.
Basir Mujahid, Kabul's police spokesman, added that six people had also been wounded in Saturday's blasts.
Violence has been rising as foreign forces withdraw from the country by September 11 and efforts to broker a peace settlement between the Afghan government and insurgent Taliban have slowed. It was not immediately clear who was behind Saturday's attacks.
The Hazara community has also been the target of a number of attacks from the IS group. In May an unclaimed attack on a school in the area left around 80, mostly school girls, dead.
Meanwhile, Taliban militants have captured two more district centres in Afghanistan, officials confirmed on Saturday.
In the country's western province of Ghor, the militants took control of Tolak district after clashes with government forces, three lawmakers representing the province in the parliament confirmed.
Over a dozen members of pro-government forces were killed while several others were wounded in the overnight clashes, MP Keramuddin Rezazada said.
The district governor along with his personnel surrendered to the militants on Saturday morning, Rezazada further claimed.
Local officials in the province could not be reached, as telecommunications were down due to threats by the militants.
In the country's northern province of Balkh, Taliban fighters took control of the Zara district after forcing members of the government forces to evacuate the district centre, two local officials said.
Provincial councillor Afzal Hadid said that the insurgents had blocked the supply of water to the security forces stationed in the district, and that they had been under siege for a long time.
The security forces evacuated the district without any casualties with the help of the air forces, Hadid added.
However, a spokesman for the 209th military corps in the north of the country said that the forces had been relocated to a village in the same district on Saturday after a decision by the provincial military council.
The militants have seen a string of gains in the country recently. Since the beginning of the official withdrawal of the US and other Nato troops in Afghanistan on May 1, at least 17 districts have fallen to the Taliban. - dpa
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