14 die in Afghanistan

THREE international service members and at least 11 civilians died in violence across southern Afghanistan on Friday, including one attack in which a suicide bomber wearing a burka blew himself up in a bazaar.

Violence has spiked recently in Afghanistan’s volatile south as Taliban insurgents step up attacks ahead of a planned major operation by NATO forces to secure the main city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban.

Insurgents have killed 59 Afghans during the past seven days, 54 of them in Kandahar, a US commander said.