A mine blast killed seven guards in Afghanistan on Saturday, while two civilians were killed in separate incidents, officials said.A landmine blew up a vehicle transporting Afghan guards who had been protecting a road construction company in Kunar province, a troubled region on the Pakistani border, governor Fazullah Wahidi told AFP. He could not say who was responsible for the attack but Taliban militants waging a bloody insurgency against the Kabul government have been blamed for a string of similar incidents.
Meanwhile in the western province of Farah, a suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up near a police vehicle. Regional police spokesman Abdul Mutalib Rad said the bomber was the only person killed. Police later arrested four men believed to be Taliban who were seen dropping the bomber off from a vehicle, Rad said.
In other incidents linked to the Taliban insurgency, a civilian truck driver was killed and a truck supplying Western troops was set ablaze in the volatile southern province of Zabul on Saturday, police said.
Kunar governor Wahidi also alleged that US troops patrolling in the mountains on Friday had shot and killed a civilian who was collecting wood and injured two others. The US military, which has soldiers in the area, could not confirm the report.
Casualties of civilians caught in the crossfire between rebels and troops have eroded public support for the campaign against the extremist insurgents.
The deepening violence and higher-than-expected casualties among foreign soldiers has also weakened support in many of the roughly 40 countries with troops in Afghanistan, prompting calls for them to leave.