NATO troops among dead in Afghan suicide raids

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Oct 19 (Reuters) Several Afghans and two NATO soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber threw himself at the troops in southern Afghanistan today, witnesses and an army officer said.

In a similar attack a few hours later, a police officer was killed and four others injured outside the southeastern town of Khost, officials said.

The first attack took place in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, in which a NATO vehicle was set alight.

''The bomber was on foot and hurled himself at the convoy of NATO,'' said Shamsuddin, an Afghan army officer near the scene.

''Two NATO soldiers died and two others have been wounded.'' British troops were among the wounded, a Defence Ministry spokeswoman said in London.

''We can confirm that a small number of UK soldiers have been injured in an explosion in Laskar Gah ... We have no reports of British fatalities,'' she said. She did not give information about Afghan casualties.

Several bodies of civilians were scattered on the ground, some with limbs blown off, witnesses said.

British troops make up the bulk of NATO forces in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold and the heart of the illegal opium industry in the world's biggest producer.

This is Afghanistan's bloodiest year since a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban's strict Islamist government in 2001. More than 3,000 people, including more than 150 foreign soldiers, have died in fighting.

REUTERS PB BD1536