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Global

Afghanistan suicide attack kills 3 foreign soldiers


    KABUL (Reuters) - Three soldiers fighting with NATO-led forces and a civilian were killed by a suicide car bomb attack on a military convoy in east Afghanistan on Tuesday, Afghan officials and a spokesman for the alliance said.

    One foreign soldier and one civilian were also injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into the convoy in the northern Sayat district of Kapisa province, said Abdul Ali Mayar, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

    Mayar also said a U.S. military vehicle was destroyed in the attack. U.S. forces declined to comment on the incident.

    NATO-led forces said the nationality of the soldiers had not yet been released. Mainly U.S. and French troops working under NATO command are deployed in Kapisa province.

    Violence in Afghanistan is expected to spike in the coming months as some 21,000 additional U.S. forces are deployed to reinforce NATO-led troops in the south and east of the country, the frontline of the fight against Taliban-led insurgents.

    Despite the increasing numbers of foreign troops, violence has risen to its highest levels in recent months since the Taliban were ousted after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

    Five Taliban were killed in an overnight air strike by foreign forces in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, the provincial police chief said.

    And on Monday, Afghan police and U.S. forces killed eight militants in Uruzgan province in southern Afghanistan, U.S. forces said.

    Another three insurgents were killed when a bomb they were planting exploded in southeastern Paktika province, the Afghan National Security Directorate said.

    (Reporting by Hamid Shalizi and Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Paul Tait)