AFGHANISTAN: Suicide car bomber attacks NATO troops killing three Afghan passers-by

A suicide car bomber attacked NATO troops in southern Afghanistan on Monday (October 16) killing three Afghan passers-by, while three people were wounded in a similar attack in Kabul, security officials said. Nearly 200 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, part of a wave of the worst violence the country has seen since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001. One NATO soldier was wounded in the attack in the centre of the southern city of Kandahar, a NATO spokesman said. Major David Moralt told Reuters: "An ISAAF (United Nations International Security and Assistance Force) convoy was attacked as it approached the city of Kandahar. There was one ISAAF soldier injured and I don't have any information at this time on the number of Afghan casualties. Not too much more I can tell you other than that at this time, other than it's another example of what the Taliban are doing, trying to disrupt life in Kandahar, and trying to disrupt the life of the people of Kandahar." NATO soldiers cordoned off the site of the attack, witnesses said, adding they saw a destroyed NATO vehicle and smoke rising. The Kabul blast went off close to a school on a main road linking the U.S. embassy to the city's airport. Three Afghans were wounded. A purported Taliban commander, Hayat Khan, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, said both attacks were carried out by Taliban bombers. Speaking from the scene, senior police officer Alisha Paktiawal, said: "Our police and security forces stopped this bomber, police were suspicious about him, suddenly the bomber blew himself up because he didn't want to be arrested." Separately, troops from a U.S.-led coalition force killed three insurgents in an operation to destroy a bomb-making compound in Ghazni province to the southwest of Kabul, the force said. One coalition soldier was wounded. On Sunday (october 15), NATO forces killed four Taliban in the eastern province of Kunar, NATO said, while Afghan troops killed eight Taliban in the south-eastern province of Paktia, the Defence Ministry said.

ITN Source | October 16, 2006

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