Two killed in Afghanistan suicide bomb attack

A suicide car bomb outside a Nato military base in a western Afghan city today killed two Afghans and wounded seven others, officials said.

It was the second such attack on a foreign military base in as many days and highlighted the increasing risk to foreign forces as they expand into new areas across Afghanistan, including a big British taskforce which is due to deploy in the summer .

Today’s attack was near the gates of the base in Heart city, which is home to hundreds of Italian soldiers, said police chief General Mohammed Ayub Salingi, in Kabul, the capital.

A spokesman for the NATO force, Warrant Officer Cosimo Argentieri, said no foreign troops were killed. He said one foreign civilian inside the base was slightly wounded on an arm.

The blast was being investigated, but he declined to give further details.

Salingi said a suicide attacker drove a vehicle up to the gates of the base and detonated explosives inside the car. One of the dead was an Afghan guard at the base, while the other was a passer-by. The attacker also died.

Saturday’s attack in Heart was unusual because the city, near Afghanistan’s western border with Iran, has been spared much of the violence that has wracked southern and eastern parts of the country.

The majority of the city’s residents are ethnic Tajiks, unlike the Taliban rebels, who are predominantly ethnic Pashtun.

Friday’s suicide attack occurred outside a United States-led coalition base in Laskargah, the main town in Helmand. It wounded two US military service members and one US civilian contractor.

There was also a second suicide bombing on Friday in Helmand. It was against a convoy of Afghan army trucks, but only caused minor damage to the vehicles and hurt no one else.

Helmand is Afghanistan’s main opium poppy growing region and much of the profits from the illicit business are believed to go to the insurgents.

The British Army is preparing to deploy to Helmand a taskforce of 3,300 soldiers, based on 16 Air Assault Brigade. It should become fully operational by June.

On Thursday, MPs warned that British forces would face a deteriorating security situation when they deploy as part of the Nato mission.

They will face a “fundamental tension” at the heart of their mission, the Commons Defence Committee said.

The MPs warned that attempts to crack down on the region’s drugs barons could actually result in a deterioration in the security situation which the troops are supposed to stabilise.

The MPs also said they were “deeply concerned” that the 3,300-strong taskforce lacked sufficient close air support or transport helicopters.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks against foreign forces in Afghanistan and President Hamid Karzai’s US-backed government. Some 1,600 people were killed in fighting last year, the most since US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.

In the past six months, the rebels have started using suicide attackers, a new threat that is proving hard to counter.