NATO patrol bombed in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug 4 (Reuters) A NATO convoy was bombed in Afghanistan's south today, a day after four soldiers were killed in the area, but there were no casualties, the alliance said.

Witnesses and a Taliban spokesman said a suicide bomber rammed his car into the convoy on the main highway in Kandahar province, but a NATO spokesman in Kabul said it was hit by two roadside bombs.

He said no vehicles were damaged and the convoy did not stop.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in the south as NATO built up to its takeover from U.S. troops on Monday in the biggest ground operation of its history.

Yesterday, at least 21 civilians died when a suicide car bomber attacked another NATO convoy not far from the scene of today's incident. No foreign soldiers were hurt.

Four Canadian soldiers were also killed and several wounded in three separate attacks along the same highway yesterday.

NATO and Afghan forces killed 20 Taliban fighters in a battle in neighbouring Helmand province yesterday, provincial police chief Nabi Mullahkhail today said.

President Hamid Karzai condemned yesterday's suicide bombing as an inhuman attack on ordinary people.

''This cowardly attack against the Muslim people, against the Afghan people is nothing but enmity with Afghanistan,'' he told reporters at his heavily fortified presidential palace today.

He said the strong resolve of the Afghan people would not be affected by such attacks of ''immense inhumanity''.

Taliban commander Mullah Hayat Khan told Reuters by satellite phone the group was not involved in yesterday's bombing, accusing foreign agents of carrying out the raid to discredit the Taliban.

Afghanistan is going through its worst violence since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.

Almost 1,800 people have been killed in attacks by Taliban, drug barons and operations by foreign forces this year, mostly in the south and east, the Taliban's homeland.

The victims include militants, civilians, aid workers, Afghan security forces and almost 80 foreign troops.

Karzai whose government relies on Western funds to bankroll Afghanistan's economy and security, could not say when the insurgency would end in his war-ravaged country.

Separately, a group of suspected Taliban attacked a police post just outside the capital early today, police said.

There were no casualties among the police but one attacker was killed.

REUTERS SY PC1555