Attacks kill 5 police in Afghan capital Kabul

[September 24, 2008]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A police official says a bomb blast in the capital has wounded Kabul's chief criminal investigator.

Zemerai Bashary says Wednesday's bomb blast appears to have targeted Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawal, the head of criminal investigations for the Kabul police.

Bashary says Paktiawal was investigating the overnight killing of three officers at the checkpoint in Kabul's western outskirts when a blast struck his team.

Paktiawal was lightly wounded and two of his guards were killed.

Paktiawal is a high-profile police official in the capital, rushing to the scenes of the bombings, busting drug smugglers and personally leading the raids on the city's numerous criminal gangs. He was protected at all times by a large security detail.

[Associated Press]

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