5 coalition soldiers killed

Associated Press

KABUL

Five NATO service members were killed Thursday in southern Afghanistan, the scene of heavy fighting as troops push into areas long controlled by the Taliban, the coalition said.

Three died when a homemade bomb exploded, and two were killed separately — one after an insurgent attack and another in an explosion.

No other details or the nationalities of the troops were disclosed immediately.

Three Afghan civilians also died in the south in a suicide attack on a NATO convoy, a local official said.

Nine other civilians were wounded in the bombing, which occurred near the airport in Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold.

The suicide attacker detonated explosives while in his vehicle, causing the casualties, said Zulmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the Kandahar governor.