KABUL - A NATO soldier was killed in a suicide car bomb blast and three Al-Qaeda terrorists militants died in a separate attack on Friday in the latest violence to hit Afghanistan, officials said.
 A Taleban suicide terrorists bomber detonated an explosives-filled car near a NATO vehicle in the volatile town of Spin Boldak in Kandahar province near the Pakistani border, killing one of the alliance’s soldiers, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. ‘The incident occurred on the road from Spin Boldak to Kandahar, when a white Toyota Corolla drove towards an ISAF convoy, and exploded near one of the vehicles,’ it added.
Local police chief Abdul Wassay Alokozai also said it appeared to be a suicide blast and added that NATO troops had sealed off the area. ‘I can see a vehicle in flames,’ he said.
Self-proclaimed Taleban terrorist spokesman Yousuf Ahamdi told AFP by telephone from an unknown location that the attack was a suicide bombing carried out by a Taleban terrorist fighter. ‘The suicide terrorist bomber was an Afghan and his name was Ilhas,’ he said.
The NATO-led force has now lost ten soldiers to hostile action since taking control of the dangerous south of the country on July 31 from a US-led coalition that overthrew the Taleban in 2001. The soldierÂ’s nationality would be released by the relevant country.
 Separately three Al-Qaeda terrorists militants were killed in the country’s east in a joint raid by Afghan forces and the US-led coalition, the coalition said. Another three terrorists ‘associates’ were arrested in the operation near the village of YaQubi in Khost province, which targeted an Al-Qaeda terrorist member ‘considered a significant threat to Afghan and coalition forces’, it said.
‘Credible intelligence linked the targeted terrorist to remote-controlled improvised explosive device and vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attacks in Khost province,’ the coalition said in a statement. The three ‘terrorists’ opened fire using small arms and were killed when the Afghan and coalition forces returned fire, while the others were detained without incident, it added.
The statement did not specify whether the terrorist suspect who was the target of the mission was captured or killed. A spokesman for US troops in the capital Kabul said the military was attempting to ascertain the seniority of those captured. ‘We are still trying to assess the level of the terrorists detainees,’ he said.
AK-47 assault rifles with armor-piercing ammunition and a cache of grenades was found in a building at the site of the raid and later destroyed, the coalition said. No Afghan or coalition forces were injured in the operation, it said. |