2 foreign women shot dead in western Afghanistan

Two Finnish women were shot and killed by unknown gunmen while riding in a taxi in the western Afghan city of Herat on Thursday, local officials said. The attack came the same day that a market bombing in Afghanistan's north killed six people.
"This morning at around 11:30am (7am GMT) gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at two foreigners riding in a taxi and killed them," Sayed Fazullah Wahidy, the governor of Herat province, told AFP.
No group has yet claimed responsiblity for the killings, but the Christian medical charity the women worked for was targeted by the Taliban four years ago in an attack that killed eight. The militants claimed at the time that the medics were "missionaries".
A bombing in a market in northern Afghanistan killed six other people on Thursday, including a young girl, an official said. Dozens more were wounded in the blast.
The attack targeted a police car but the police escaped unharmed, said Sonatullah Timor, the spokesman for the Takhar provincial government.
The bomb was placed on a motorcycle and wounded 26 people when it detonated, including several children, he said.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, but Taliban insurgents frequently target the country's security forces.
A market attack earlier this month killed 89 people and wounded more than 40 others when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a busy shopping area of the Urgun district of Paktika province in southeastern Afghanistan.