Afghan authorities say suspected Taleban fighters have ambushed and killed at least seven policemen in Logar province.
Officials say dozens of attackers armed with shoulder-fired rockets and machine guns ambushed a police van late Monday on a road in a mountain valley, about 90-kilometers south of Kabul.
Regional security officials say they believe the assailants were Taleban fighters.
Meanwhile, an explosion ripped through the home of the younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the southern city of Kandahar Tuesday.
Police say the blast was accidental and the president's brother -- Ahmed Wali Karzai -- was not home at the time.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, police said two Afghans working for a British aid agency were wounded when suspected Taleban fighters attacked their vehicle near the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif Sunday.
Also on Sunday, two deadly assaults on Afghan police compounds in the Paktika province killed at least 25 people.
Meanwhile, provincial governments are making security preparations for Tuesday's celebrations marking Afghanistan's Independence Day -- the end of British rule in 1919.
Reports from the region say some of the new violence may be linked to new government efforts to rein in warlords who have private armies. Some of those warlords also hold posts in the U-S-backed Kabul government.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.