Suicide attack kills civilian, wounds 2 troops

Associated Press

KABUL

A suicide car bomber blew himself up as a NATO convoy passed his vehicle on the outskirts of the capital Friday, killing one civilian and wounding two troops, officials said.

NATO said one Afghan civilian was killed in the blast near the entrance to a coalition base south of Kabul. The Afghan Defense Ministry said an Afghan soldier and a NATO service member were wounded in the explosion.

The Hizb-i-Islami group that operates under the leadership of warlord and former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar claimed responsibility for the attack.

“The bombing has been carried out by one of our men,” Harun Zarghun, a spokesman for Hizb- i-Islami, told The Associated Press. “The attack is part of our campaign to oust American forces from Afghanistan.”

The attack slightly damaged a humvee but destroyed the vehicle driven used by the suicide bomber, AP Television News footage showed.

Although suicide-bomb attacks are becoming commonplace in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan, where NATO is fighting the Taliban, increased security has made them less frequent in the capital.

In eastern Afghanistan, a NATO service member was killed in an insurgent attack, the coalition said. Neither the nationality of the service member nor any other details were released. So far this year, 626 U.S. and international troops have died in Afghanistan, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Also on Friday, the coalition killed at least seven insurgents in an airstrike on a Taliban command center in the Naw Zad district of Helmand province in the south. Afghan and NATO troops continue to battle a resilient insurgency in Helmand while Afghan officials work to improve governance and rush development into the region.

Intelligence information and tips from local citizens led the coalition to the location, which insurgents use as a meeting site.

In the past few days, numerous armed insurgents had been seen coming and going from the location, the coalition said.

NATO said Thursday that at least 15 militants were killed by in a fierce round of fighting in Helmand province and 15 more were detained during three overnight operations targeting Taliban leaders across Afghanistan.