Suicide car bomb wounds 2 UK troops in Afghan

Kabul, July 7: A suicide car bomber attacked NATO-led forces near the Afghan capital Kabul today, wounding two British soldiers, Afghan police chief General Ali Shah Paktiwal told sources.

One military four-wheel-drive vehicle stood burnt out beside a dusty track just outside Kabul and another was slightly damaged.

Parts of the bomber's car were strewn over a wide area. The charred stump of his body lay on the ground.

Two soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force suffered minor wounds in the attack, said an ISAF spokeswoman, but she declined to give their nationalities.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had killed several foreign troops.

There has been a rise in suicide and roadside bombings in Afghanistan this year as Taliban insurgents switch tactics after suffering heavy casualties in conventional attacks against Afghan government, NATO and US forces.

The roadside bomb that killed six Canadian soldiers and their Afghan translator in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday was the biggest yet seen by his troops, the Canadian commander said.

Their armoured vehicle was the toughest the Canadian troops have, but it was completely destroyed by the blast and all inside were killed instantly.

''By looking at the crater, it was quite huge. Over three metres across and a metre-and-a-half deep,'' Lieutenant Colonel Rob Walker told reporters at his base near in the southern city of Kandahar.

''This was very powerful. There is no vehicle that as going to survive that,'' he said.

Western military experts believe Taliban rebels are learning from insurgents in Iraq and say the technology of what they call improvised explosive devices (IEDs) is constantly evolving.

From July 2006 to June of 2007, there were 150 IEDs against ISAF forces within Kandahar province alone, Walker said.

Sixty-six Canadian troops and a diplomat have died since Ottawa sent troops to Afghanistan in 2002, mostly from IEDs.

The death toll has increased doubts among Canadians about the wisdom of keeping the 2,600-strong Canadian force in Afghanistan.

In a separate incident, ISAF said the death toll from a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan yesterday had risen to two, but declined to give the nationalities of the dead. Clashes are continuing in the area and air strikes had been called in, the ISAF spokeswoman said.

Reuters>