By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives outside a government office north of the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, killing at least two people, sources said.
The attack happened as Afghan provincial authorities and U.S. forces were holding a weekly meeting inside the office of the governor of Parwan province in the local capital Charikar, a politician from the province told Reuters.
U.S. forces had blocked off the area in Charikar, 60 km (37 miles) north of Kabul, she said.
It was unclear if the governor and other provincial officials inside the building were hurt in the attack, the latest in a spell of rising violence this year in Afghanistan.
Two other sources from Charikar said at least two Afghans were killed and 12 wounded in the rare attack in a province that has been little affected by resurgent Taliban militants who have made a comeback since 2005.
A U.S. military vehicle was hit by the blast and was on fire, the politician added, but had no further details.
The incident came a day after 16 people, 14 of them children, were killed in a suicide attack outside a government building in southeastern Khost province, according to NATO-led forces.
Afghanistan is going through the bloodiest period of violence since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001, despite the deployment of more foreign troops.
Nearly 5,000 people, including more than 200 foreign troops, have been killed this year in the country, which some analysts say may slide back into anarchy.
The al Qaeda-backed Taliban are largely active in southern and eastern areas, which are dominated by ethnic Pashtuns who form the bulk of the militants near the border with Pakistan.
Factors such as endemic corruption, lack of the rule of law, insecurity, slow economic development and civilian casualties caused by foreign troops while hunting militants have helped the Taliban gain public support and attract recruits.
U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for masterminding the September 11 attacks on the United States.
More than seven years on, several Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are still at large.
There are about 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, and the United States plans to send up to 30,000 more by summer.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin, Editing by Dean Yates and Gillian Murdoch)
