KABUL, April 8: Seventeen Afghan road workers were killed in an attack in the southern Afghan province of Zabul on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.

“Seventeen engineers and road workers were killed in an attack by enemies of Afghanistan’s stability,” said ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary. All the victims were Afghan, he said.

He did not elaborate on the identity of the attackers but Taliban operate in the province, which borders Pakistan.

The Taliban have vowed to step up their war to expel foreign troops and bring down the Western-backed government.

There has been intermittent fighting in recent weeks after a traditional winter lull.

On Tuesday, a soldier from Afghanistan’s Nato-led force was killed in a blast in Ghazni province to the southwest of Kabul, the force said. One soldier was wounded. The force did not give their nationalities.

Earlier on Tuesday, the government said it had no information on whether a wanted guerilla leader was in a village hit by a US-led air strike in the east of the country on Sunday.

Afghan authorities are investigating the air attack on what the Afghan and US militaries said were heavily armed insurgents in the province of Nuristan. A provincial official said more than 20 civilians were killed in the bombing.

Asked about a report that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a fugitive pro-Taliban insurgent leader wanted by the United States, was the target of the attack, a presidential spokesman said the guerilla leader’s whereabouts were unknown.

“We have no precise information whether Hekmatyar was there or not ... we are not aware as to where Hekmatyar is,” presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a regular briefing.—Reuters