NATO soldier killed in Afghanistan bomb blast

March 1, 2010

KABUL (AFP) –

A bomb attack killed a NATO soldier in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the military said.

An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded about four kilometres (two miles) south of the main base in Kandahar where thousands of NATO and US troops are stationed, NATO spokesman and Polish army Major Macin Walezak told AFP.

He declined to reveal the nationality of the soldier who was operating under NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

IEDs are widely used in militant attacks against troops.

There are about 121,000 international troops based in Afghanistan fighting an insurgency being waged by the remnants of the Taliban whom a US-led invasion pushed from government in late 2001.

Since February 13, foreign troops and their Afghan government allies have been involved in a major anti-Taliban assault in the province of Helmand, a known Taliban hub and poppy-growing district adjacent to Kandahar.

Two blasts hit Afghanistan's Kandahar, six dead

By Ismael Sameem –

March 1, 2010

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) –

Four Afghan civilians and one foreign soldier were killed on Monday when a suicide car bomber hit a convoy of NATO-led troops near the southern city of Kandahar, officials and witnesses said.

Hours later, a car packed with explosives blew up outside the main police station in the city, the birthplace of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the expected next target of NATO troops attacks.

The second Kandahar blast killed one police officer and wounded 16 people, including nine police, said Fazl Ahmad Sherzad, deputy police chief for Kandahar province.

A Reuters reporter at the scene saw at least six vehicles badly damaged. Shattered glass littered the area and several buildings nearby were destroyed.

In the earlier suicide attack, several soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were wounded in the attack on a road several miles from Kandahar airport, a provincial official said.

The airport is a key base for a major offensive by ISAF and Afghan forces launched in neighboring Helmand province two weeks ago to retake the town of Marjah from the Taliban.

The Afghan civilians were killed after they pulled their car over on the side of the road, a common act in rural areas to allow convoys of foreign forces to pass, witnesses said.

"Four civilians were killed and one wounded in the attack," said Mohammad Ibrahim, a doctor in a Kandahar hospital.

Foreign troops cordoned off the road leading to the site of the strike, witnesses said, adding that a coalition helicopter evacuated the wounded ISAF soldiers.

A bridge close by was badly damaged, a Reuters cameraman and reporter said.

In a statement on their website, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy, saying at least 11 foreign soldiers were killed.

A spokesman for the NATO-led force said one NATO soldier was killed in the blast.

(Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Bryson Hull and Paul Tait)

Blast kills 11 civilians in southern Afghanistan

Sun Feb 28, 8:49 am ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) –

An explosive device planted by Taliban fighters killed 11 civilians on Sunday in Afghanistan's most violent province, a government official said.

The blast happened on a road in the Nawzad district of Helmand Province. The province is the focus of one of the largest NATO offensives in the eight-year-old war against the Islamist Taliban.

"A newly planted mine of the Taliban hit a coach bus, killing 11 civilians including two women and two children today," Dawud Ahmedi, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor, said.

The Taliban had no immediate comment.

On Tuesday, authorities blamed the Taliban for setting off a remote-controlled bomb near a government building in Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah, which killed seven people and wounded 14.

Though under pressure as NATO forces try to drive them from their strongholds, the Taliban have responded with guerrilla attacks, including one in the capital Kabul on Friday which killed 16 people in a two-hour shootout with two suicide blasts.

Violence last year hit its highest level since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001. The Taliban fighters have made a comeback and are resisting efforts by President Hamid Karzai's NATO-supported government to impose control.

(Reporting by Ismail Sameem, Writing by Bryson Hull)