Suicide attacker dies, 7 Afghans hurt in blast

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Mar 30 (Reuters) A suicide car-bomber was today killed in Afghanistan when his explosives went off prematurely as he approached a Canadian military convoy, police said.

None of the Canadians was wounded but seven passers-by were hurt in the car-bomb blast in the centre of the southern city of Kandahar, police said.

A Taliban commander, speaking over telephone from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility.

Also today, suspected Taliban killed a senior provincial official and three policemen in an ambush in Laghman province, east of the capital, Kabul, an official said.

The violence came a day after one of the biggest battles in the past year between US-led forces and Taliban insurgents.

A US and a Canadian soldier were killed in the fighting in the southern province of Helmand, along with 32 Taliban, military officials said.

The Taliban say they have launched a spring offensive in their campaign to oust foreign troops and defeat the Western-backed government. They say they have numerous suicide bombers waiting to strike.

Security forces in Kandahar arrested nine suspected Taliban suicide bombers, two of them Pakistanis, the provincial governor said.

In other incidents, suspected Taliban gunmen on motorcycles killed a government militia commander and his brother in the southern province of Helmand.

A roadside blast in the southeastern town of Khost wounded four people, two of them policemen, police said.

REUTERS SB RAI2010