Two blasts kill 7 Afghans and 1 policeman

CHAPARHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two separate blasts in eastern Afghanistan killed seven civilians and one policeman on Saturday, officials said.

Violence is at its highest level since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, with attacks by Taliban insurgents and their allies spreading from the south and east to the outskirts of Kabul.

The United States is considering new policy options, including a counter-insurgency push, and is sending more troops to the country. But Afghanistan's long-term security lies in building up the Afghan security forces, diplomats say.

The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan said plans to boost the Afghan police force from 78,000 to 82,000 over the next three to four years were now regarded as too little.

"The police aren't very good right now. We know they are the weak link in the security chain," Richard Holbrooke told a security conference in Brussels. "So we are looking in conjunction with our allies and friends in the Afghan government at a very significant increase."

In the latest violence, a suicide car bomb attack killed five civilians and a policeman at a checkpoint in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a district governor said.

The bomber, who was targeting a foreign forces convoy in Chaparhar district, was identified and fired on by the soldiers, district governor Hasan Khan told Reuters.

But the bomber managed to turn his car around and detonate his explosives at a nearby police checkpoint, he said.

"The bomber killed one policeman and five civilians, including three children, who were sitting on a passing tractor," said Khan. Five police officers were wounded, he said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed in a statement there had been an attack on a temporary police checkpoint and said its soldiers provided immediate medical attention to the victims.

NEW YEAR

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb struck a passing car in the southeastern province of Khost, near a Muslim shrine where hundreds of people were gathering to celebrate the Afghan New Year, the provincial police chief told Reuters.

Two civilians were killed and four wounded in the blast, said police chief Abdul Qayum Baqizoy. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Khost attack but told Reuters those who were killed were border police.

Separately, a soldier from the NATO-led force was killed in the south of the country on Friday, the alliance said in a statement, the fifth foreign soldier to die in two days.

Insurgents often target Afghan and foreign forces with suicide and roadside bombs in an attempt to weaken the Afghan government and drive out some 70,000 international troops.

The majority of victims of insurgent attacks are innocent bystanders. Last year, more than 2,100 civilians were killed in Afghanistan, 40 percent more than 2007, the United Nations says.

The United States is sending up to 17,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan over the coming months to help tackle the insurgency and provide security for the presidential election in August.

(Additional reporting by Elyas Wahdat in Khost; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Janet Lawrence)