A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a NATO convoy yesterday, killing a foreign soldier and four Afghan civilians in the second bombing to strike southern Afghanistan in 24 hours.
The Taliban, waging an insurgency to evict the more than 120,000 NATO and US-led troops now in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack at Tarang, about 12km outside the city of Kandahar.
The bombing highlighted the threat posed by the militia across much of the south and underscored the challenge facing a “surge” of US and NATO troops executing a last-ditch strategy to bring an end to the eight-year war.
The attacker blew up his vehicle on a bridge spanning the main highway from Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, towards the district of Spin Boldak on the border with Pakistan.
The force of the blast threw an armored vehicle and wreckage of the car bomb spinning down to the river, an Agence France-Presse reporter said.
Foreign troops cordoned off the scene as helicopters flew overhead.
Afghan officials said four civilians were killed. The interior ministry said the attacker drove a car bomb into a NATO convoy killing “four of our innocent civilian compatriots.”
“We have received four bodies and one injured in our hospital. All the dead are burned from the blast flames,” Doctor Mohammad Ibrahim from the main civilian hospital in Kandahar said.
The nationality of the dead soldier was not given, according to International Security Assistance Force policy.
Speaking to AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location, Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility and alleged that 11 foreign soldiers died.
The Taliban routinely exaggerate the impact of attacks on US-led and NATO troops, whose numbers are set to rise to 150,000 by August as part of a new war strategy adopted by US President Barack Obama and key allies.
Yesterday’s attack comes one day after a bomb planted by the Taliban killed 11 civilians, including women and children, in Helmand, the province neighboring Kandahar and where 15,000 troops have been waging a massive offensive.
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