Suicide bomber attacks foreign convoy south of Kabul

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car into a two-vehicle convoy carrying foreigners south of the Afghan capital today, a police official said.

At least one Afghan civilian was wounded by the blast, which occurred in Muhammad Agha district in Logar province, some 25 miles south of Kabul, said Gen Muhammad Mustafa, the provincial police chief.

One of the two armoured vehicles caught fire and police had cordoned off the area, Mustafa said. It was not immediately clear who the foreigners were or if any of them were hurt in the blast, he said.

The blast comes a day after Nato said its forces have killed scores of insurgents who crossed from Pakistan in the biggest battle of the Afghan winter, while Pakistan’s army fired artillery at trucks supplying militants on the other side of the border.

Nato said yesterday it had tracked the suspected Taliban militants through air surveillance while the fighters were still in Pakistan.

Once they crossed the frontier, Nato and Afghan soldiers attacked the two separate groups with ground fire and airstrikes during a nine-hour battle that began yesterday evening.

Gen Murad Ali, the Afghan army regional deputy corps commander, said the insurgents travelled into Afghanistan’s southern Paktika province with several trucks of ammunition.

Lt Col Paul Fitzpatrick, a US military spokesman, said it was likely they were going to carry out an immediate attack, given the size of the groups.

Taliban militants last year launched a record number of attacks in Afghanistan, and an estimated 4,000 people died in insurgency-related violence, the bloodiest year since the US-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

Afghan and Western officials say the militants operate from sanctuaries in Pakistan, but Islamabad insists it does all it can to stop them.

The overnight offensive in Paktika province was the first major engagement of 2007 and appeared to be the largest battle since a multi-day operation killed more than 500 Taliban fighters in southern Kandahar province in September.

Fitzpatrick said 130 fighters were killed or wounded in the attack, down from Nato’s initial estimate of as many as 150 dead. The Afghan Defence Ministry put the death toll at 80.

It was not clear why there was such a disparity in the estimates. As is common in Afghanistan, independent confirmation of the death toll at the remote battle site was not immediately possible.

Fitzpatrick said commanders lowered the estimate after further evaluating reports from observers made at night in difficult conditions.

In early December, Nato said it had killed 70-80 fighters in Helmand province, but days later said only seven or eight had died.

Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said the army attack on the militants’ trucks Wednesday night shows the army can act swiftly and effectively if it is given ”real-time” intelligence.

“We don’t deny that some people are coming from this side. That’s why we seek intelligence in real time. We are keen to stop it,” he said.

It was the Pakistani army’s first reported offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region since a September peace deal between the government and pro-Taliban militants that critics say has provided a sanctuary for insurgents.