Blast in north Afghanistan kills three Taliban security personnel

KABUL (Reuters) -Three Taliban security personnel were killed when a motorcycle carrying an explosive device blew up near a military vehicle in northern Afghanistan being used in opium poppy eradication operations, an interior ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

Protests have roiled several districts in the northern province of Badakhshan, where farmers object to Taliban security forces' attempts to wipe out opium cultivation - the backbone of many household incomes in impoverished Afghanistan.