A suicide attacker rammed an explosives-filled car into an army convoy in volatile southeastern Afghanistan, killing three Afghan soldiers and a roadworker, the defense ministry said yesterday.
The attack in Khost province late on Wednesday was the latest in a spate of more than 20 such blasts in the past four months, pointing to a change of tactics in an insurgency that erupted after the 2001 fall of the Taliban.
Three soldiers were also wounded after the attacker drove the vehicle into the Afghan army convoy in Khost's Bak district and set off the deadly blast, defense ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.
"Three soldiers and one civilian were martyred, and three soldiers were wounded in the car bomb suicide attack," he said.
The soldiers had been providing security for a road construction project, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity. He said two roadworkers were killed, but that was not confirmed by Azimi.
A remote-controlled bomb was detonated on Wednesday near another army convoy, this time in the southern province of Kandahar. It damaged a vehicle but caused no casualties, Azimi said. Nine suspects were arrested.
Southern and southeastern Afghanistan are hotbeds of violence blamed on remnants of the hardline Taliban regime which launched an insurgency after being toppled in a US-led operation in late 2001.
The insurgency and other violence last year killed more than 1,600 people, most of them militants, more than double the number who died the previous year.
Suicide attacks started emerging around September last year, targeted mainly at Afghan security forces and the nearly 30,000 foreign troops who have been helping to stabilize Afghanistan.
The rise in attacks has raised concerns as NATO members prepare to deploy thousands of troops in the south to replace US troops.
The deadliest suicide blast in mid-January killed 22 men at a wrestling match in the southern town of Spin Boldak bordering Pakistan.
The Taliban denied involvement in that blast.
The attack was followed by demonstrations in cities across the country, in some cases accusing Pakistan of not doing enough to root out Taliban militants thought to have fled into its territory after 2001.
In the latest protest about 1,000 people marched in the capital of the southern province of Helmand yesterday.
Analysts have said the increase in suicide blasts and car bombs suggests the insurgents have adopted Iraq-style tactics or are increasingly being influenced by al-Qaeda.
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