Romanian soldier killed in Afghan blast

KABUL, June 20 (Reuters) A roadside bomb hit a convoy of Romanian troops in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar on Tuesday, killing a Romanian soldier and wounding four others, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said.

Afghanistan is being wracked by the bloodiest violence since US-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001 and comes as NATO prepares to take over from the US in the southern heartland of the Islamist group.

Major Quentin Innes said the blast struck a car in the convoy on the road from Kandahar city to the airport, a coalition base.

''A Romanian patrol convoy was hit ... resulting in the death of one Romanian soldier and wounding four others,'' he said.

Separately, almost 20 Taliban were killed in three different clashes in the neighbouring province of Helmand and in southeastern Paktika yesterday night, provincial officials said.

Taliban officials could not be immediately reached for comment on the deaths, but a spokesman for the Islamist movement earlier said insurgents were behind the Kandahar blast.

In another attack today, the governor of the northeastern province of Badakhshan province, Abdul Majid, survived an assassination attempt when a grenade was thrown at his house by what a police official said were Afghanistan's enemies, a term used for the Taliban and their militant allies.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in the south, which international forces say is due to their own increased operations but which some Afghan officials say is a sign of growing support for the rebels and disillusionment with the government and its foreign backers.

Ahead of NATO's takeover in the south US, British and Canadian troops have launched their biggest offensive in the region since the 2001 invasion to crush the rebels and cut off their supply routes.

The coalition says Operation Mountain Thrust, which includes powerful air strikes, has killed more than 100 rebels in recent days.

The NATO takeover will allow the United States to pull out about 3,000 of the 23,000 troops it has in Afghanistan.

Almost 1,000 people have died in violence in Afghanistan this year, including more than 40 foreign troops, most of them Americans.

About 400 people were killed in May alone.

Several thousand people have fled their homes, fearing spreading fighting in the biggest displacement since 2001.

REUTERS KD KP1641