Two Americans among eight dead in Afghan blast

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec 6 (Reuters) A suicide bomber attacked the office of a US-owned security company in southern Afghanistan today killing seven people, including two Americans, a government and company official said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast outside the office of the Houston-based US Protection and Investigations (USPI) in Kandahar city.

''The bomber was questioned by a security guard as to where he was going, in front of the office, and he blew himself up among company employees,'' Kandahar's police chief Esmatullah Alizai told reporters.

The employees had gathered for a regular morning briefing outside their office, which is opposite a base of Afghanistan's NATO security force, he said.

Two of the victims were Americans working for the company. Five Afghans and the bomber were also killed. The company provides guards to protect foreign companies working on construction and infrastructure projects.

Afghanistan this year has plunged into the bloodiest period of violence since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban's radical Islamic government in 2001.

It was the third suicide bomb attack in the city this week.

Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a spokesman for the Taliban, said by telephone that the bomber was a member of the Islamist group which is battling to oust foreign forces.

About 105 suicide bomb attacks this year have killed nearly 250 people, most of them civilians, according to the NATO force.

More than 40,000 foreign troops, about half of them American, are in Afghanistan battling the Taliban and trying to ensure sufficient security for development to get going.

But the strength of a resurgent Taliban this year caught foreign forces and the government by surprise.

Nearly 4,000 people have been killed in violence since January, including nearly 160 foreign troops.

Most of the violence has taken place in the south and east, in areas near the border with Pakistan, from where the insurgents are getting help from militant allies.

The level of violence has fallen to some extent in recent weeks since winter began, but the Taliban have vowed to renew their campaign in the spring.

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