At least 8 killed in south Afghan attack-witnesses

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec 3 (Reuters) At least eight people were killed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar today in a suicide car bombing against NATO troops and subsequent gunfire by soldiers, police and witnesses said.

Three civilians died when the bomber struck a military convoy and five more were shot by troops afterwards, they said.

NATO said three of its soldiers were wounded in the attack for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

Asked about the accounts of troops shooting civilians, NATO spokesman Major Luke Knittig said: ''We will establish the facts. It is still unclear in what way the troops reacted.'' Britain's Ministry of Defence said the three injured soldiers were British Royal Marines commandoes. It said one was seriously wounded and the others were in stable condition.

''The convoy was attacked by a suspected suicide bomber in a vehicle, who attempted to ram the British vehicles. A number of Afghan civilians were also injured in the blast and at least two were killed,'' the ministry said.

''This was a typically indiscriminate attack from the Taliban, who didn't care if they killed or injured innocent Afghans around our forces,'' British task force spokesman Lt Col Andy Price said in the statement, released in London.

Both NATO and U S-led coalition troops are stationed in Kandahar, the heartland of the Taliban insurgency, which has been stepped up this year, including a dramatic increase in suicide attacks, previously almost unheard of in Afghanistan.

Two Canadian soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing in Kandahar last week.

Almost 4,000 people, about a quarter of them civilians, have been killed in fighting this year, the bloodiest since U S-led forces ousted the Taliban's hardline government in 2001.

Reuters PB DB2147