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Afghan suicide blast injures five

A suicide car bomber attacked a government center protected by NATO and Afghan troops in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, collapsing a guard post with soldiers inside, officials said. Three NATO soldiers were wounded in the attack, a US military official said.

The attacker rammed the explosives-laden car into the gates of the government district center in Yaqoubi district, eastern Host Province, which is guarded jointly by US and Afghan troops, Khost Governor Arsallah Jamal said.

He said the compound houses the Afghan government district center and a US provincial reconstruction team.

US Army Lieutenant Colonel Dave Accetta, a spokesman for NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan, said that three NATO soldiers were wounded as a result of the explosion and were evacuated for medical care to the main US military base at Bagram airfield. He could not confirm whether the attack was a suicide bombing.

Accetta would not disclose the soldiers' nationalities because of strict rules set by NATO. However, the majority of international forces in Khost Province are US.

Two Afghan policemen were also wounded in the attack, Babakarheil said.

Clashes and raids in the south on Sunday, meanwhile, left more than 20 Taliban fighters killed and wounded, officials said.

US-led coalition troops targeted a Taliban commander in Garmser district of Helmand Province, the coalition said.

"Several insurgents were killed when they fired on coalition forces," who detained four men with suspected links to the militants, the coalition said in a statement.

Also Sunday, Afghan and foreign troops clashed with militants in Helmand's Sangin district, resulting in 20 casualties, the Defense Ministry said in a statement that did not provide a breakdown of the number of dead and wounded militants.

Separately, a Canadian soldier was killed by a roadside bomb west of Kandahar city on Sunday, said Brigadier General Guy Laroche, the commander of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.

Since 2002, 79 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan, including five soldiers this year. Most have been killed by roadside bombs.

Canada has deployed about 2,500 troops to fight the Taliban in the volatile south, but has threatened to withdraw if other NATO countries fail to provide 1,000 additional troops for Kandahar Province, one of the centers of the Taliban-led insurgency.

In other developments, Afghanistan's intelligence chief, meanwhile, rejected an assessment by his US counterpart that 10 percent of the country is under Taliban control, calling the figures "completely baseless."

US National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell told a Senate committee last week in Washington that Afghanistan's central government controls just 30 percent of the country, the Taliban controls about 10 percent, and local tribes control the rest.

Afghan and Western officials have disputed the figures.

"All the percentages given are completely baseless for us," Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh told a news conference yesterday in Kabul.

Saleh said only eight of Afghanistan's 364 districts -- comprising 2 percent of the population or 5 percent of its territory -- are not government controlled. He also took issue with McConnell's assertion that the 60 percent of the country controlled by tribal leaders is not under direct government control.
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