Several killed in attack in Afghanistan south

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

Three civilians died when the bomber struck a military convoy near a base, and five were more shot in different parts of the city, they said.

Both NATO and US-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 US-led forces ousted the Taliban's hardline government in 2001.

REUTERS

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