Suicide blast hits Nato convoy in Afghanistan

A suicide car bomb exploded next to a Nato convoy in southern Afghanistan today, and troops speeding away from the scene shot at several civilian cars, officials said. Up to three Afghans were killed in the ensuing chaotic violence.

Another 19 people, including three Nato soldiers, were wounded, officials said.

The blast damaged an open-top Nato vehicle and scattered pieces of the car bomb over a wide area in Kandahar city. Three Nato soldiers were wounded, said Squadron Leader Jason Chalk, an alliance spokesman in Kandahar. He did not disclose their nationality.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two civilians were killed and 10 wounded in the blast, said Dr. Bashir Ahmed of the main Kandahar hospital.

After the explosion, soldiers speeding from the scene fired at civilian vehicles. An Associated Press reporter saw soldiers fire on cars about half a mile from the blast site, including a man on a motorcycle who was shot in the stomach.

Ahmed said six Afghans were wounded by the gunfire.

The suicide bomber tried to ram his car into the convoy as the troops were driving through the city, said Razaq Khan, a police officer at the scene. Khan said three civilians were killed in the bombing; hospital officials said two were killed.

It was not possible to independently verify the discrepancy in the number of people who were killed.

Zarar Ahmad Muqbal, Afghanistan’s interior minister, told a news conference in Kabul that one civilian was killed and one was injured by the gunfire. He was apparently describing only one civilian car that was hit.

Major Luke Knittig, the spokesman for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, said as the patrol was driving away from the blast site it came across a suspicious car that soldiers feared might be a second suicide bomber - apparently the car Muqbal spoke of.

Knittig also said there might have been a “wider engagement” of gunfire in the immediate aftermath of the blast. Chalk said the patrol fired warning shots to keep people away and that some civilians may have been injured as a result.

Isah Mohammad, one of the Afghans injured by gunfire, said from his hospital bed that he was driving through Kandahar with his cousin when the convoy passed them.

“The convoy was coming and there was some gunfire, but I thought it was a wedding ceremony,” said Mohammad, who is in his early 30s and was hit in the shoulder and the right leg. “When they got closer, they started shooting at us.”

His uncle, Gahfoor Aqa, had harsh words for Nato troops. ”They were going to the shop and they are hit by bullets from Nato, who are always saying they’re coming to rebuild our country. But instead they are shooting our children,” he said.

The blast was the fourth suicide attack in the Kandahar region in a week. Two Canadian soldiers were killed last Monday by a suicide car bomb just outside Kandahar.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmedi, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack.

Taliban insurgents have launched a record number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year. The bombs typically target Nato and Afghan security forces but more often kill civilians. Nato figures as of last week showed that 227 Afghans and 17 international soldiers have been killed in about 105 suicide bombings this year.

Meanwhile, suspected Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in neighbouring Zabul province, sparking a gunbattle that left four insurgents dead and one police officer wounded, an official said.

The early morning clash occurred near Qalat on the main highway linking Kabul and Kandahar, said Jailany Khan, Zabul’s highway police commander.

Police recovered three AK-47 assault rifles, one rocket-propelled grenade and the body of one of the militants, Khan said.

Afghanistan’s south is the centre of a revived Taliban insurgency that this year alone has left over 3,700 people dead.