[ADN Kronos] A suicide attack on a police patrolling vehicle injured nine people in the Taliban stronghold of southern Kandahar province on Friday, Pajhwok Afghan news agency reported. A pedestrian approached the police vehicle on patrol in Panjwai district and detonated explosives stripped to his body, provincial officials said in a statement.Nine people - six policemen and three civilians including a child - were wounded in the blast, which also destroyed the police vehicle, the statement said. All the injured were airlifted to a nearby hospital run by the NATO-led international force in Afghanistan, where the injured were said to be in a stable condition.
The statement strongly condemned the blast, saying the enemies of Afghanistan launched their attack at a time when the whole country was observing the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Two soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in clashes with militants in volatile eastern Afghanistan, NATO announced on Friday.
The Western military alliance said a US soldier was killed on Thursday in an attack on a patrol. Another soldier was killed after coming under fire, NATO said.
Two Afghan National Army soldiers were killed as a group of insurgents attacked a joint convoy of US and Afghan forces in the southeastern Kunar province on Thursday, an official said on Friday. Afghan and US launched retaliatory attack, but the attackers managed to escape.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed their fighters destroyed a US military tank in the attack on the convoy, killing and wounding several troops.
On Tuesday, a suicide bomber riding on a motorcycle rammed his explosives-packed bike into a convoy of foreign troops in Kandahar's Spin Boldak district. However, the blast caused no casualties.
In the neighbouring southern province of Helmand, police claimed they arrested four Taliban militants including a commander involved in planting mines along road sides.