16 Afghans, including 5 women, killed in attacks within day

About 16 Afghans were killed and 13 others wounded in attacks elsewhere in Afghanistan on Saturday as the Taliban insurgents intensified attacks and the NATO-led forces are withdrawing from the war-torn country.
In one bloody attack, five women and three men were killed while two children were wounded when a sedan set off a Taliban roadside planted bomb in Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province, the Interior Ministry confirmed in a statement.
The ministry strongly condemned the attack, saying the victims were members of the same family.
Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, is notorious for poppy growing.
In northern Takhar province, a lawmaker named Qazi Kabir escaped unhurt in an attack at around midday along the main road to Khawja Ghar district. One militant injured in the exchange of fire was arrested by Kabir's bodyguards.
In eastern Nangarhar province, a roadside bombing targeted an army Jeep in the morning, but the vehicle escaped the attack and the bomb hit a civilian car, killing two passengers and injuring one child.
An anti-corruption judge, Abdul Samad, was wounded in his hand in a drive-by shooting in Herat city, capital of western Herat province, provincial governor Sayyed Fazlullah Wahidi told Xinhua.
Three police were killed in an attack on a security checkpoint in Herat's Shindand District bazaar overnight, confirmed Wahidi.
At the same bazaar, one businessman was shot dead at around midday Saturday.In northern Jawzjan province, one police officer was killed after the militants fired a rocket propelled grenade on a police vehicle late in the morning. The police jeep was destroyed in the attack.
Early on Saturday morning, three army soldiers got injured and five Taliban militants were killed following two clashes in eastern Nuristan province, the army spokesman Haroon Yousufzai told Xinhua.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group launched an annual rebel offensive against Afghan government forces and NATO-led troops stationed in the country in mid-May.
Afghan security forces have taken the full responsibilities of security of areas across the country where 95 percent of the country's 28 million population lives.
Nearly 50,000 NATO-led coalition troops, down from the peak of 130,000 in 2010, are stationed in Afghanistan, and the United States plans to trim its forces to less than 10,000 next year.
Earlier on Saturday, one Afghan Local Police (ALP) commander Niyaz Khan along with three ALP cops was wounded in roadside bomb attack in northern Kunduz province, according to police spokesman Sayyed Sarwar Housaini.
Several civilian vehicles were damaged in the attack which occurred in provincial capital Kunduz city, 250 km north of Kabul.
Also on Saturday, a senior official in charge of reconstruction of electricity lines from southern Helmand to the neighboring Kandahar province was killed in a bomb attack in Helmand, where the electricity towers were destroyed during recent fighting, according to officials.
The Taliban urged civilians to stay away from official gatherings, military convoys and centers regarded as the legitimate targets by militants besides warning people not to support the government and foreign troops.