Afghan bicycle bomb wounds 3 near Turkey consulate

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, July 9 (Reuters) A bomb attached to a bicycle detonated near the Turkish consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif today, wounding three civilians, including one child, an official and witnesses said.

They said explosives packed onto a bicycle went off in a crowded street some 200 metres (yards) from the consulate, wounding a man, a woman and a child, and shattering the windows of a nearby health clinic.

''Insurgents want to disturb security,'' senior provincial police officer Salahuddin Sultan told Reuters. ''The Taliban are surely behind it.'' ''The street was crowded with lots of cars and people and suddenly I saw a big explosion and everyone was screaming and trying to get away and the wounded people were crying out for help,'' said witness Rahmatullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

The north of Afghanistan has been relatively free from violence, but Taliban insurgents vowed this year to spread their attacks the length and breadth of the country.

Turkey contributes some 1,150 personnel to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, and Turkish troops assumed the leadership of the regional ISAF command for the capital Kabul for eight months in April this year.

Turkish construction companies are also involved in a number of mainly road-building projects in Afghanistan.

REUTERS SV PM2037