Suicide bombings against foreign troops in Afghanistan on Sunday left two civilians dead, while the military claimed that it killed 52 insurgents.Two German soldiers and two US soldiers were also wounded in the suicide bombings, while the British military announced that one of its troops had been killed in a blast in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday.
One of the suicide bombs hit a convoy of troops in the northern province of Baghlan. Two Afghans were killed and a dozen wounded, the interior ministry said. Two German soldiers were also hurt, one of them seriously, the German military said.
The other suicide car bomb on Sunday was on the outskirts of the western city of Herat that wounded two US soldiers, the US military said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The US military said separately that its troops and Afghan security forces had killed 38 militants in Helmand on Saturday. "The combined forces engaged the militants with direct and supporting fires, killing 38 militants and destroying two militant vehicles," it said in a statement.
Troops killed four more insurgents who had attacked them at an illegal drugs factory in the neighbouring province of Kandahar on Saturday, it said. Meanwhile, troops killed five al-Qaeda-linked militants in the eastern province of Paktia on the border with Pakistan, the US military announced.