KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct 6, (Agencies): Two explosions killed nine people and wounded two dozen others in Kandahar, the second day of deadly blasts in the southern Afghan city where Taleban insurgents are fighting back against US and Afghan forces pushing into areas long held by insurgents.
A car bomb and a second, smaller blast killed nine people Tuesday, including one Afghan policeman, Kandahar provincial health director Qayum Pokhla said. Police officers were also among the 26 people wounded.
Three explosions just minutes apart killed three Afghan police officers in the city Monday night. When police gathered to tend to the wounded after the first blast, two more explosions occurred, said Zelmai Ayubi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar. Noor Ahman, deputy mayor in Kandahar, was killed in an insurgent attack Monday and later in the day Habibullah Aghonzada, a former district chief in Arghistan, was gunned down by assailants as he prayed at a packed mosque.
Nato described the two as “dedicated public servants who sought to improve the lives of their fellow countrymen.”

The military alliance announced Tuesday an insurgent involved in the kidnapping of a New York Times reporter was captured in northern Afghanistan. The unidentified militant was apprehended by Afghan and coalition security forces in Takhar province overnight Monday, a statement said.
Meanwhile, Representatives of the Taleban and President Hamid Karzai’s government have started secret talks to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing Afghan and Arab sources.
The sources, who were not named by the Post, were quoted as saying they believe the Taleban representatives are authorised to speak for the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taleban organisation based in Pakistan, and its leader, Mohammad Omar.
The sources quoted by the Post stressed that the current discussions are in the preliminary stages. The newspaper said the talks followed inconclusive meetings hosted by Saudi Arabia that wrapped up more than a year ago.
Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omer, speaking in Kabul, declined to confirm or deny the report of new meetings.

“There were contacts in the past and may now be direct or indirect ones. There have been regular contacts over the past two years,” he said, when asked about the Washington Post story.
“There haven’t been any substantive talks, there have been contacts only.” Afghanistan has been beset by war for decades. US forces led an invasion in 2001 to topple the Taleban rulers of Afghanistan who harboured the al-Qaeda network responsible for the Sept 11 attacks on the United States that year.
Fighting has dragged on for nine years.
“They are very, very serious about finding a way out,” one source close to the talks said of the Taleban, according to the Post.
The newspaper noted that Omar’s representatives have insisted publicly that negotiations were impossible until foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan. But the Post said the Quetta Shura has begun to discuss a broad agreement that would include participation of some Taleban figures in Afghanistan’s government and the withdrawal of US and Nato troops on an agreed timeline.
The Quetta Shura is the remains of the Afghan Taleban government overthrown and driven into Pakistan by the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.