Three German police killed in Afghan blast

KABUL, Aug 15 (Reuters) Three senior German police officers charged with protecting the country's ambassador were killed and one was wounded in a roadside bomb near the Afghan capital Kabul today, German and Afghan officials said.

Baryali Parwani, chief of police of the Bagrami district, southeast of Kabul, said the diplomatic convoy was hit by a remote-controlled roadside bomb.

A white four-wheel-drive vehicle was totally destroyed by the blast on a dirt track leading to a NATO and Afghan army training base. German and French troops cordoned off the area.

''Based on what we know so far the officers drove over a bomb on their way to a training session,'' German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a statement. ''The explosion was so strong that it had deadly consequences.'' A fourth policemen was also injured, but his wounds were not life threatening, Schaeuble said.

A British security contractor employed by Armor Group was shot dead in Kabul today, the British Foreign Office said. Armor Group is contracted to guard the British embassy and other British staff in Afghanistan.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana denounced the attack on the Germans.

''I condemn in the strongest possible terms this terrorist act that killed three German citizens and left another one injured,'' he said.

The German government is under pressure from the opposition and public opinion to withdraw its 3,200 troops from Afghanistan where more than 20 of them have been killed since 2001.

Elsewhere, Afghan police killed nine insurgents yesterday in a gunbattle in Logar province, south of Kabul and one civilian was killed in an explosion in Paktika province in southeastern Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry said today.

Reuters RSA DB2241