Death Toll from Uruzgan Attacks Rises to 17

At least 17 people were killed including a local BBC reporter in triple suicide blasts and gun attacks in the southern province of Uruzgan on Thursday, the provincial health director said.

"So far 17 bodies and 37 wounded have been brought to the hospitals, among the dead is Omid Khpalwak who was a reporter for BBC radio as well as the Pajhwok news agency," Khan Agha Miakhail said.

A BBC manager who declined to be named confirmed Khpalwak's death, as did Javid Hamim Kakar, regional editor of Pajhwok, an Afghan news agency.

"Yes. His brother confirmed that he died and his body is in the Uruzgan central hospital," Kakar told Agence France Presse.