NATO convoy hit by bomb

A suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy traveling in southern Afghanistan yesterday, apparently killing three civilians and wounding three soldiers, officials said.

Soldiers opened fire after the blast, wounding at least a half dozen Afghans, witnesses and a doctor said.

The explosion damaged a NATO armored vehicle and scattered pieces of the car bomb over a wide area in Kandahar.

Three NATO soldiers were wounded, said Squadron Leader Jason Chalk, an alliance spokesman in Kandahar.

Soldiers opened fire after the bombing, hitting people in their cars, a reporter said.

It was not immediately clear how many people were wounded in the bombing or by gunfire.

A doctor, Nasibullah Khan, said two bodies and 14 wounded Afghans were taken to the Mirwais hospital.

Eight of the injured had bullet wounds, the doctor said.

The bomber tried to ram his car into the convoy as the troops were driving through the city, said Razaq Khan, a police officer at the scene. He said three civilians were killed.

The blast was the fourth suicide attack in the Kandahar area in a week.

Two Canadian soldiers were killed last Monday by a suicide car bomb just outside Kandahar.

Taliban militants have launched a record number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year.

The bombings typically target NATO and Afghan security forces, but the victims of the attacks are usually civilians.

NATO figures as of last week showed that 227 Afghans and 17 international soldiers had been killed in about 105 suicide bombings this year.

Meanwhile, suspected Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in neighboring Zabul Province, sparking a gunbattle that left four insurgents dead and a police officer wounded, an official said.

The early morning clash occurred near Qalat on the main highway linking the cities Kabul and Kandahar, said Jailany Khan, Zabul Province's highway police commander.

Police recovered three AK-47 assault rifles, a rocket-propelled grenade and the body of one of the militants, Khan said.

Afghanistan's south is at the center of a revived insurgency by the Taliban.

This year alone, attacks have left more than 3,700 people dead.