(Updates with U.S. statement)

KABUL, July 20 (Reuters) - A suicide car-bomb killed two Afghan civilians and wounded two foreign soldiers in an attack in a bazaar in southern Afghanistan on Friday, a U.S. military statement said.

It said the attack came as a convoy of Afghan troops and soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition force were travelling through the bazaar in the town of Sangin, in Helmand province.

Some 38,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan are under NATO command as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), but another 10,000 to 13,000 are part of a mainly U.S. coalition force operating in the south and east of the country.

Foreign forces have been criticised for their reliance on airpower to overcome Taliban insurgents which has led to civilian casualties. The U.S. statement said the Taliban attack in a busy bazaar was bound to lead to ordinary Afghans being killed.

"It is unbelievable that the insurgents condemn civilian casualties in the media and then purposely seek to create them with their tactics," coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher said in the statement.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and said it killed several foreign soldiers.

Afghanistan has seen a sharp rise in the number of suicide and roadside bombings in the last 18 months, which Western military officials say is due to the Taliban's inability to launch conventional attacks without sustaining heavy casualties.

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