1 killed, 5 injured in Afghanistan IED blast

Kabul [Afghanistan], September 20 : A woman lost her life and five others were injured in an IED explosion which took place in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Afghanistan's Balkh province on Saturday evening, health officials said.
Confirming the blast, Balkh police spokesperson Adil Shah Adil said the explosion occurred near Sina Stadium in the city when a convoy of Afghan security forces was passing through the area, TOLOnews reported.
"Three of the wounded are in critical condition," said Ghausuddin Anwari, the head of Abu Ali Sina Balkhi hospital in Balkh.
The explosion in Mazar-i-Sharif came hours after two security personnel died in separate blasts in the northern province of Balkh and the eastern province of Paktika on Saturday, according to local officials.
One security force member was killed and eight others were injured in a suicide blast at Dedadi district in Balkh on Saturday morning, Paktika police said.
Mohammad Hashim, an National Directorate of Security (NDS) commander, was injured in the blast.
The attack in the northern province of Balkh came after Ayub Gharwal, the deputy head of the Paktia Provincial Council, was killed in an attack by terrorists.
Violence continues to remain high in Afghanistan amid the peace talks in Doha between the Afghan government and Taliban which started in Doha last week.
Earlier on Friday, EU special envoy Roland Kobia said that UN figures pertaining to violence in Afghanistan in the last five weeks has been the highest in the last five years, TOLOnews reported.
He stressed that the Taliban should show the capacity to act politically, not as terrorists using "arms to twist arms".