Suicide blast at Afghan army base, 6 soldiers hurt

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

KABUL, April 9 (Reuters)- A suicide car bomber today attacked an Afghan army base near the Pakistani border, wounding six soldiers hours after bombs blasts in the city of Kandahar hurt 11 people.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for either of the attacks but Taliban insurgents, fighting to expel foreign forces, regularly claim to be behind suicide blasts, ambushes and roadside bombs.

The car bomber tried to force his way into an army base in the eastern province of Paktika, about 10 km (six miles) from the Pakistani border, said General Akram, an army commander in the province.

Soldiers opened fire and the bomber detonated his explosives.

Four of the soldiers were in serious condition, Akram said.

A recent surge in violence followed a Taliban announcement they had launched a spring offensive and comes as NATO members are preparing to send thousands more peacekeepers to Afghanistan, with many headed to the particularly dangerous south.

Car bombers have attacked two foreign military bases since Friday, one a U.S. base in the southern province of Helmand and the other a NATO peacekeeping base in the generally peaceful city of Herat in the west.

Four people were killed in those attacks, including the two bombers, and 11 wounded, among them three Americans and an Italian.

In the southern city of Kandahar, a bomb exploded in a roadside plant pot and a second went off about 30 metres (yards) away 15 minutes later, after security forces and onlookers had arrived.

Afghan army officer Khair Mohammad, who was at the scene, said three soldiers and three policemen had been wounded, as well as some civilians. A hospital official said five wounded civilians had been brought in, two of them children.

Mohammad said the bombs could have been triggered by remote control and one man had been detained for questioning.

Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are leading the expansion in the south as NATO prepares to take over responsibilities from the United States, which hopes to cut its Afghan force by several thousand to about 16,500.

Critics in some NATO countries say the troops risk getting bogged down in a deadly insurgency fueled in part by Afghanistan's huge narcotics trade.

Until now, most NATO troops have been confined to the generally peaceful capital, the north and west.

REUTERS RL VC1638

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