 A Pakistani suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded bazaar in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing four civilians and two Afghan soldiers, a provincial governor told AFP. About a dozen other people, most of them civilians, were wounded in the attack near the Pakistani border, Paktika Governor Mohammad Akram Khepelwak told AFP.
The blast was the second in as many days in the region. Three international soldiers were killed in a similar bombing at a bridge construction site on Tuesday in neighbouring Paktia province. The target of the attack in the district of Barmal appeared to be Afghan soldiers who were in the bazaar shopping, reports said.
The blast was similar to scores of others carried out by Pakistanis the Taliban, which is waging an Al Qaeda-backed insurgency that sees regular attacks along the border region. It comes amid a spike in clashes between the Taliban and security forces, which include about 50,000 international soldiers supporting the fledgling Afghan security forces. The US-led coalition said late Tuesday that more than 100 Taliban rebels were killed in a day of fierce fighting in the southern province of Kandahar. |