Bomber rams US convoy in Afghanistan

KABUL, June 6: A Taliban suicide car bomber rammed a US coalition convoy in the southeast Afghan province of Khost today, wounding some troops, but there were no immediate reports of deaths, a US military spokeswoman in Kabul said.

''We have very limited information, but there are no reports of coalition casualties, only reports of injured,'' said Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence, adding that she did not know the numbers of wounded or seriousness of their condition.

The latest attack comes during the bloodiest period in an insurgency that has been raging since US-backed forces ousted a Taliban government from power in late 2001.

Some 400 people were killed last month alone, as the Taliban has stepped up attacks in the south in an apparent attempt to weaken NATO governments' resolve as a US-led coalition will hand control of the southern provinces to the alliance's peacekeeping force in July.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency said a Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, had called to claim responsibility for the attack by one of the militants' fighters.

He named the car bomber as Agha Gul, and said the attack had killed six foreign troops and three Afghans.

General Akram Samim, an Afghan National Army commander in Khost, said the car bomber died, but there were no other deaths.

REUTERS