Militants staged several deadly attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan on December 13, killing at least 19 people and wounding dozens of others.
Police said Taliban fighters shot dead at least 12 workers and injured 12 others clearing mines near the former British base of Camp Bastion in the southern province of Helmand.
The attack prompted clashes between Afghan troops and the insurgents, who attacked the mine clearing operation.
Meanwhile in Kabul, six Afghan soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber destroyed a bus carrying Afghan soldiers in the west of the capital.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack that wounded at least 14 others.
The Defense Ministry said, the death toll could rise, as several people were taken to hospitals, some in critical condition.
Afzal Aman, chief of operations at the Defense Ministry, said the bus had been taking the soldiers and officers home when it was struck, most likely by an attacker on foot.
Earlier in the day, a senior Supreme Court official was gunned down near his home in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
Kabul police said Atiqullah Rawoofi, the head of the secretariat of the Afghan Supreme Court was killed near his home in Kabul's northwestern neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement on December 13 that two service members "have died as a result of an enemy forces attack in eastern Afghanistan." The soldiers were killed when were killed when an insurgent assault targeted a military convoy near the Bagram air base in Parwan Province, north of Kabul, late on December 12.
Taliban militants have intensified their attacks in and around the Afghan capital just weeks ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of the year.
A teenage Taliban suicide bomber targeted a French-funded school on December 11, killing a German citizen and wounding several others during a play condemning the violence.
Hours earlier, another suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Afghan troops in suburbs of the capital, killing six soldiers.
Amid the continuing violence in Afghanistan, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted on December 12 a text welcoming an agreement between NATO and Afghanistan to set up a noncombat Resolute Support Mission from January 1 that will reduce NATO's role to training, assistance and advisory capacity.
The council also welcomed the international community's willingness to continue supporting Afghanistan as the ISAF mission ends on December 31 after a 13-year military engagement.
Some 12,500 foreign soldiers are set to stay in Afghanistan for the Resolute Support Mission. The coalition will not lead any combat operations, but they will respond to attacks.
