Nine Afghan soldiers died and another was seriously wounded when a mine exploded near their vehicle as they traveled close to the Pakistani border, an Afghan commander said.
A spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, one of the bloodiest in months.
Meanwhile, another mine reportedly wounded four Afghans working for a US security firm in eastern Afghanistan. The 10 soldiers from a border guard unit were aboard a pickup truck when it struck the land mine Saturday on a road near Spinboldak, a frontier town in southern Kandahar province, General Abdul Raziq Khan, the unit's commander, said.
The only survivor, an officer called Qadir Bhai, was seriously wounded and taken to a nearby French special forces base for treatment, Khan said. He said the mine was freshly laid and blamed Taliban militants for the attack.
"They are coming over the border from Pakistan to carry out these attacks," he said in a telephone interview from Spinboldak.
Mullah Abdul Hakim Latifi, a man who regularly claims to speak for the Taliban, said its members detonated the mine by remote control and then opened fire on the stricken soldiers.
He claimed 11 troops were killed and vowed the hardline militia would continue to attack Afghan and US forces.
The four Afghans were wounded on Thursday when a mine exploded near their vehicle in Chawkay district of Kunar province, Interior Ministery spokesman Latfullah Mashal said.
Mashal said the men were working for a US contractor called USPI, which provides security for a Turkish construction company repairing the province's main road. A Turkish man working on the road was abducted and killed last month.
US and Afghan security forces are in the midst of a winter-long operation supposed to keep militants on the defensive and prevent them from preparing major violence against Afghan parliamentary elections slated for the spring.
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