Suicide bombers attacked foreign troops in central and southern Afghanistan on Friday, killing five children and wounding at least two soldiers, local police and a provincial government official said. Separately, a US-coalition soldier was killed in eastern Paktia province on Friday, the US military said. In the first suicide attack, a bomber rammed his car into a convoy of international troops in Tirin Kot, killing five children playing nearby, a provincial government official said. “Two international soldiers were wounded,” Mohammad Nabi told Reuters. Three civilian adults were also wounded, he added. A second suicide bomber attacked a foreign troop convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, wounding at least five civilians, a police official said. He did not know if there were any troop casualties in the Kandahar attack.
A spokeswoman for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan could not immediately give details about either reported suicide attack. A US military spokesman said the soldier killed in Paktia province had died from wounds sustained in combat. He declined to give any details or the nationality or name of the soldier.
Battles between soldiers and the Taliban on Thursday and Friday resulted in more than 24 rebels killed and a teenage boy dying in the crossfire, the US-led coalition added. One clash erupted when Afghan and coalition soldiers raided a Taliban compound in Zabul province. The gunfight that followed “killed a few militants” and the teenager, the coalition said in a statement. A child was also struck by bullets and evacuated to a military hospital for treatment, the coalition added. “After the engagement, local villagers confirmed the enemy fighters killed at the scene were indeed Taliban militants,” the counter-terrorism force said. Three people were also arrested.
In a separate battle, warplanes pounded rebel positions in Helmand province on Thursday, the coalition reported. The fighting erupted after troops were attacked in Sangin district, which was under Taliban control for several weeks this year. “More than two dozen enemy fighters were estimated killed during the nine-hour battle and there are no reports of Afghan civilian injuries,” the statement said. According to the AFP, a search found bomb-making material, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery rounds. In Kandahar province, meanwhile, coalition forces opened fire on men who were positioning a rocket. “One enemy vehicle was destroyed and several enemy fighters were killed,” the statement said.