Roadside bomb wounds 4 Afghan police

KABUL, July 12 -- Four Afghan police were injured as their van ran over a mine in Afghanistan's southern Zabul province Sunday, police said.

"It was a roadside bomb, planted by militants and struck the police van outside Zabul's provincial capital Qalat wounding four on board," a senior police official in the province Jilani Khan told Xinhua.

Meantime, a similar incident in the neighboring Helmand province Saturday afternoon left two policemen dead and injured three others.

Taliban militants who staged a violent comeback four years ago, in a new tactic to mount pressure on security forces have resorted to suicide and roadside bombings.

Conflicts and Taliban-related insurgency, according to observers would surge this year in Afghanistan as Taliban fighters have vowed to disrupt the country's second presidential elections set for August 20.