KABUL (AFP) – The Taliban targeted top government officials in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing 11 people in two suicide blasts and firing rockets at the vice president and interior minister, who escaped unhurt.

Nine civilians were among those who died in the attacks, which came days after the United Nations warned of an unprecedented rate of civilian casualties in Afghanistan over recent weeks.

Two of the strikes hit central Afghanistan, not far from the heavily secured capital Kabul, and were claimed by the militia leading a nearly 10-year insurgency against US-led NATO troops and the Afghan government.

In the first, an attacker drove a car laden with explosives towards the education and agriculture departments in Mahmud Raqi, capital of Kapisa province northeast of Kabul.