Taliban insurgents have killed at least 19 people in a day of gun and suicide attacks in Afghanistan, underlining worsening security as US-led NATO forces end their combat mission in the country.
A suicide blast killed at least six soldiers and wrecked the military bus they were on in Kabul on Saturday while a senior court official was assassinated in the city and 12 Afghan mine clearance workers were gunned down in the south.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for all the attacks.
The latest bout of violence comes ahead of the official end of NATO's war against the Taliban on December 31 after 13 years of fighting that has failed to thwart the Islamist insurgency.
NATO's force in Afghanistan will change on December 31 from a combat mission to a support role, with troop numbers cut to about 12,500 -- down from a peak of 130,000 in 2010.
On Saturday, casualties were rushed to hospital after a suicide bomber on foot detonated explosives next to the military bus in central Kabul, killing at least six soldiers.
"Six members of the ANA (Afghan National Army) have been martyred," defence ministry deputy spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP. "Many other people were taken to hospitals."
Earlier in the day, Taliban gunmen shot dead a senior Supreme Court official as he left his home.
Insurgents also killed 12 mine clearance workers in the restive southern province of Helmand.
Afghan officials have expressed alarm over the challenge facing the local security forces who must increasingly tackle the insurgents without NATO military assistance.
Afghan soldiers and police have suffered soaring casualties, with more than 4600 killed in the first 10 months of this year.
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