Afghanistan Suicide Attack Kills 3 Foreign Soldier

The nationality of the dead soldiers has not yet been released. Troops deployed in Kapisa province are mainly U.S. and French.

Three soldiers fighting with NATO-led forces and three civilians were killed by a suicide car bomb attack on a military convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, Afghan officials and a spokesman for the alliance said.

One foreign soldier and two civilians were also wounded when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into the convoy in the northern Sayat district of Kapisa province, a spokesman for the provincial governor and the Interior Ministry said.

A spokesman for fugitive pro-Taliban insurgency leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who rarely claims responsibility for suicide attacks, said his Hezb-e-Islami group had planned the bombing.

Waliullah, who uses only one name, also said that the foreign commander of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kapisa province was among the dead.

NATO-led forces declined to comment on his statement, which could not be verified independently.

The nationality of the dead soldiers has not yet been released. Troops deployed in Kapisa province are mainly U.S. and French, working under NATO command.

According to figures compiled by Reuters, 103 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the year, compared with 270 in all of 2008.

In southern Kandahar, a roadside bomb killed two Afghan policemen and injured another, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. More than 1,500 Afghan police have been killed in fighting between 2007 and 2009 .

Violence in Afghanistan is expected to spike in the coming months as some 21,000 additional U.S. troops are deployed to reinforce NATO-led forces in the south and east of the country, the frontline of the fight against Taliban-led insurgents.

Despite the increasing numbers of foreign troops, violence has risen in recent months to its highest levels since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

Thirteen militants were killed in a U.S. air strike in Logar province, south of Kabul, the U.S. military said. Another five Taliban were killed in an overnight air strike in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, a provincial police chief said.

Abdul Qayum Baqizoi, provincial police chief in eastern Khost province, said a civilian feared to be a suicide bomber was accidentally shot dead as he approached a foreign forces convoy.

A spokesman for NATO-led forces confirmed the incident involved Afghan and NATO-led troops and was being investigated but declined to give any more details.

Keramat Khan Ekhpelwak, head of Khost City's Chamber of Commerce, said the man was a currency trader.

Civilian casualties are a growing source of tension between Afghans and foreign troops.

Another three insurgents were killed when a bomb they were planting exploded in southeastern Paktika province, the Afghan National Security Directorate said.