A regional Taliban police chief and two others have been killed in a car bomb attack in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan Province.
The December 26 attack took place in the morning near the regional police headquarters in Faizabad, the province's capital and largest city, according to the Taliban's acting interior ministry.
The ministry's spokesman, Abdul Nafi Takur, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that four suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident, which he said was carried out using a vehicle fitted with a mine in a high-speed attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the car bombing, which the interior ministry said killed regional police chief Abdulhaq Abu Omar. The ministry did not identify the two others reportedly killed. Four people were wounded in the attack, according to local media.
Omar is believed to be the highest Taliban security official slain since the hard-line Islamist group seized power in August 2021.
The Taliban-led government has dealt with a continuous stream of violence since returning to power. Some attacks, including in Afghanistan's north, have been attributed to the extremist group Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K).
An armed resistance movement, known as the National Resistance Front (NRF), has also been established in the country and has been active in northern Afghanistan. An NRF spokesman reportedly said only that the attack was the result of Taliban infighting.
Badakhshan Province is bordered by Tajikistan to the north, by China to the east, and by Pakistan in the southeast.