Three Afghan police die, British wounded in blasts

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Apr 14 (Reuters) Separate blasts in Afghanistan today killed three policemen and wounded six people including two British peacekeepers, officials said.

Afghanistan has seen a surge of attacks on Afghan and foreign forces since the Taliban announced last month they had launched a spring offensive.

The three policemen were killed when a remote-control bomb hit their truck on a main road outside the southeastern town of Khost, said provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoub.

Three policemen, including a senior officer, were wounded, he said.

Earlier, two British soldiers from a NATO-led peacekeeping force were among three people wounded in suicide car-bomb attack in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of the southern province of Helmand.

A suicide bomber rammed his car into a vehicle near the entrance of a base used by foreign troops, said senior provincial official Mahaiuddin, who uses one name.

The bomber was killed, he said.

A spokeswoman for Britain's defence ministry said three people had suffered non-life-threatening wounds in the blast. Two of them were British soldiers, she said.

A suicide car-bomb attack wounded three Americans in Lashkar Gah last week and three British soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb blast in Helmand on Monday.

The Taliban have been fighting since their ouster in late 2001 to force foreign troops out of the country and overthrow the Western-backed government.

REUTERS SI ND1448