Two killed in Afghanistan bomb blast

A bomb hidden inside a car exploded today outside a district police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan, killing an officer and a passer-by and wounding two civilians.

The attack occurred in Khogyani town, about 50 miles east of the capital, Kabul, said local police commander Ghafur Khan.

He said one of the injured, a government official, was inside the car when the bomb exploded. It was not immediately if the man had placed the bomb there himself or if someone else had hidden it and detonated it when he reached the police headquarters.

The dead policeman was standing guard outside the station at the time of the blast.

The attack comes amid a major upsurge in violence across Afghanistan that has left almost 1,500 people dead.