Blasts wound 7 Afghan police, one foreign soldier

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug 17 (Reuters) A suicide bomber blew himself up near an Afghan police post today, killing himself and wounding seven police in the volatile southern province of Uruzgan, the provincial police chief said.

Soon afterwards, a foreign soldier with US-led coalition troops was wounded when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in neighbouring Kandahar province.

The attacks are the latest in a rising cycle of violence, especially in the Taliban's southern heartland, that has plunged the country into its worst period of bloodshed since the hardline Islamist movement was driven from power in 2001.

Uruzgan police chief Mohammad Qasim said the suicide bomber had detonated explosives strapped to his body as he neared the post while being chased by other police.

''We had information in advance of a suicide attack and we were chasing him,'' he told Reuters, adding that three of the injured were critically ill.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the group had carried out the attack and the bomber was an Afghan. He said several police had been killed or wounded.

More than 1,800 people have died in violence this year, most of them militants, say Afghan and coalition commanders.

The dead also include more than 80 foreign soldiers.

Last month NATO, mainly British and Canadian forces, took over security in the south from the US-led coalition to allow Washington to withdraw about 3,000 soldiers from the country.

The Taliban and Islamic allies such as al Qaeda are mostly active in the south and east.

REUTERS DKB RK1351