Five NATO soldiers, six Afghans killed in attacks

KABUL - Five foreign soldiers, three Afghan civilians and three policemen were killed in explosions and a firefight in eastern and southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

Two soldiers died following roadside bombings Sunday in the south of the country, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

Three other foreign troops were killed in an attack by suspected Taliban fighters in an eastern province Sunday, the ISAF said in a separate statement.

The military did not reveal the nationalities of the soldiers killed. The deaths came a day after three foreign soldiers lost their lives in suspected insurgent attacks in the war-torn country.

More than 640 NATO troops have been killed in the Afghan war in 2010, the deadliest year for foreign soldiers since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. There are currently around 150,000 US and NATO forces deployed in the country.

An explosive-laden motorbike was remotely detonated Sunday morning in a busy market in Spin Boldak, a district in the southern province of Kandahar, killing two civilians and injuring 11 others, Zalmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the provincial governor, said.

One civilian was killed and nine others, including six children and two women, were also injured on Sunday by a bomb in the centre of Jalalabad, the capital of the eastern province of Nangarhar, said Abdul Ghafour, a police spokesman.

The target of the bomb was an army convoy passing the area at the time of the blast. There were no casualties among the soldiers, Ghafour said.

Three policemen were killed Sunday when the vehicle they were travelling in was struck by a roadside bomb in Tarin Kot, a district in the southern province of Uruzgan, a police official said.

Suspected militants attacked a convoy of fuel tankers destined for NATO forces in Nangarhar’s Behsud district early Sunday morning, torching 12 vehicles, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the provincial governor said.

Taliban militants have intensified their attacks across Afghanistan in a bid to gain more military advances before the traditional lull during country’s harsh winter.

On Saturday, six would-be suicide bombers tried to storm a NATO base outside Jalalabad city, but were all reportedly killed by soldiers.