Suicide bomber kills two NATO soldiers in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov 27: A suicide bomber killed two NATO soldiers in an attack on an alliance convoy in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar today, a NATO spokesman said.

NATO spokesman in Kandahar, Squadron Leader Jason Chalk, could not give the nationalities of those killed, but Canadians form the bulk of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kandahar.

Civilians said the bomber ploughed into the convoy in a car.

NATO forces sealed off the site of the attack on a road where several government buildings are located, they said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Flames and smoke rose from one of the vehicles and a NATO helicopter hovered overhead, the witnesses said.

Afghanistan is going through its bloodiest period since US-led coalition forces overthrew the Taliban's radical Islamic government in 2001.

The violence has seriously hampered development and reconstruction, raised fears the Taliban are gaining support in the countryside, and reinforced perceptions President Hamid Karzai has little control outside Kabul.

NATO SUMMIT NATO

took over responsibility for security in Afghanistan from the United States this year and the 32,000 troops in the ISAF force are fighting the toughest ground war in the alliance's 57-year history.

Its mission will dominate discussions at a two-day summit of the 26-member alliance in Riga, Latvia, from tomorrow but nations are resisting appeals to bolster the force and differ over restrictions on what national contingents can do on the ground. NATO said today it had killed an Afghan who refused warnings to stop -- including flares and warning shots -- as he approached a convoy in Helmand province.

Monday's incident is the latest in which troops have fired on civilians in the mistaken belief they were under attack.

On Saturday, the alliance said it would mount signs on its vehicles in the two official languages, Dari and Pashto, warning people to keep their distance. A similar measure has long been in place in Iraq.

But half of Afghan men and 80 per cent of women cannot read.

Some ban their troops fighting in the snow; others restrict operations at night or above certain altitudes.

ISAF on Sunday said NATO forces had killed about 55 Taliban fighters in two separate engagements the previous day, both in the violent south.

About 50 of the fighters were killed in Uruzgan province, where one NATO soldier was killed in the same incident, and another five in Kandahar province, the alliance said.

A suicide attack yesterday killed 15 Afghans in a restaurant in southeastern Paktika province, many of them members of a militia force hired by the US military, according to the provincial governor.

The Taliban and their Islamic allies stepped up a suicide attack campaign a year ago as the insurgency gathered fresh momentum, despite US military comments it was on its last legs.

So far this year, about 3,800 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, including scores killed in suicide attacks, and in operations by foreign forces across the country, according to the government and the UN estimates.

A quarter of the victims have been civilians, but hundreds of Taliban along with Afghan forces and more than 150 foreign troops have also died.

REUTERS