KABUL, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three people including a local judge lost their lives in separate attacks in Afghanistan, the latest in a string of targeted killings in the Asian country, authorities said on Thursday.
In the southern Kandahar province, one security forces member was shot dead by gunmen in the provincial capital Kandahar city, a local official told Xinhua anonymously. The city has seen several direct attacks by gunmen affiliated with Taliban militants in recent months.
In the eastern Nangarhar province, a private school principal came under armed attack and was killed in Police District (PD) 6 of the provincial capital Jalalabad city on Thursday morning, local TV channel TOLOnews reported.
In addition, Judge Hafizullah at a local commercial court was killed by gunmen in PD 4 of Jalalabad on Wednesday. The killing took place when he was on his way to office, according to Reduction in Violence (RiV), an independent war monitoring group.
Local officials regarded the killings as targeted attacks by Taliban militants.
Furthermore, militants kidnapped the mayor of Ghoryan along with five municipality workers in the western Herat province late Wednesday night, Farhad Khadimi, chief of Ghoryan district, told Xinhua.
He said the municipality workers were released by the militants soon after, and that local officials and elders have been making efforts to secure the safe release of the mayor.
In January, 95 civilians, 212 security forces members and about 1,650 militants were killed in conflicts and clashes across Afghanistan, according to the RiV website. Enditem
