Suicide car attack kills 21 in Afghan south

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide car bomb attack
aimed at a convoy of NATO troops in southern Afghanistan killed
at least 21 civilians on Thursday, local officials said.

The bombing in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar province
came within hours of three separate attacks on NATO troops that
killed four soldiers, including a Canadian, and wounded several
more.

Violence in the volatile south has jumped as NATO forces
take over from U.S. troops in the alliance’s biggest ground
operation in its history. The car bomb attack is one of the
bloodiest in Afghanistan for months.

Seven NATO soldiers have now been killed since Monday when
the alliance, being led mainly by British and Canadian troops,
took over the south.

Six more have been killed in recent months as the grouping
stepped up its deployment.

The Canadian died and four colleagues were wounded in two
separate roadside blasts in the early hours.

The other three soldiers, whose nationalities have not been
released, were killed when suspected Taliban fighters opened
fire with rocket-propelled grenades near the provincial
capital, Kandahar city, just after midday, the International
Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

The Taliban, intensifying operations in recent months, have
vowed to topple President Hamid Karzai’s U.S.-backed government
and drive out foreign forces.

NATO’s expansion into the south is aimed at allowing the
United States to cut the size of its forces in the country.

Afghanistan is going through its bloodiest phase since the
Taliban were ousted in 2001 with most of the violence in the
south and east, where more than 1,700 people including
militants, civilians, aid workers, security forces and more
than 70 foreign troops have been killed this year alone.

Another roadside bomb on Thursday, possibly aimed at a NATO
convoy, wounded three civilians in the northern province of
Baghlan, provincial officials there said.

Separately, 22 Taliban guerrillas were either killed or
wounded in an operation by Afghan police on Wednesday in
southern Helmand province, an interior ministry spokesman said.

Yousuf Stanizai said only two police were hurt in the
operation. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.