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A US soldier keeps watch at the site of a suicide attack after three foreign soldiers were killed in Sayat district of Kapisa, north of Kabul - Source: Reuters -
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Three soldiers fighting with NATO-led forces and three civilians
were killed by a suicide car bomb attack on a military convoy in
eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials and a spokesman for the
alliance said.
One foreign soldier and two civilians were also wounded when a
suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into the convoy in the
northern Sayat district of Kapisa province, a spokesman for the
provincial governor and the Interior Ministry said.
A spokesman for fugitive pro-Taliban insurgency leader Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar, who rarely claims responsibility for suicide attacks,
said his Hezb-e-Islami group had planned the bombing.
Waliullah, who uses only one name, also said that the foreign
commander of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kapisa province
was among the dead.
NATO-led forces declined to comment on his statement, which could
not be verified independently.
The nationality of the dead soldiers has not yet been released.
Troops deployed in Kapisa province are mainly US and French,
working under NATO command.
According to figures compiled by Reuters, 103 foreign troops have
been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the year, compared
with 270 in all of 2008.
In southern Kandahar, a roadside bomb killed two Afghan policemen
and injured another, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
More than 1,500 Afghan police have been killed in fighting
between 2007 and 2009 .
Violence in Afghanistan is expected to spike in the coming months
as some 21,000 additional US troops are deployed to reinforce
NATO-led forces in the south and east of the country, the frontline
of the fight against Taliban-led insurgents.
Despite the increasing numbers of foreign troops, violence has
risen in recent months to its highest levels since the Taliban were
ousted in 2001.
Thirteen militants were killed in a US air strike in Logar
province, south of Kabul, the US military said.
Another five Taliban were killed in an overnight air strike in
Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, a provincial police chief
said.
Abdul Qayum Baqizoi, provincial police chief in eastern Khost
province, said a civilian feared to be a suicide bomber was
accidentally shot dead as he approached a foreign forces
convoy.
A spokesman for NATO-led forces confirmed the incident involved
Afghan and NATO-led troops and was being investigated but declined
to give any more details.
Keramat Khan Ekhpelwak, head of Khost City's Chamber of Commerce,
said the man was a currency trader.
Civilian casualties are a growing source of tension between Afghans
and foreign troops.
Another three insurgents were killed when a bomb they were planting
exploded in southeastern Paktika province, the Afghan National
Security Directorate said.
